Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.
Benjamin Franklin
We have often said that publishing a B2B case study is comparable to releasing a movie.
One of the most critical decisions in creating this content asset is: Who is responsible for each activity?
Who will be the screenwriter, choreographer, director, and producer?
Deciding which tasks to tackle in-house and which to outsource is vital.
Outsourcing the Writing of Your B2B SaaS Case Study
You will likely agree that publishing case studies to promote your B2B SaaS wins can considerably help you reach more prospects and convert them into paying customers.
However, it is difficult for an organisation to have in-house content marketers, copywriters, and writers who can help them create the right content asset.
Your business will likely address the question on the team’s mind: “Should we hire a freelance writer or collaborate with an agency?”
Overhead costs. Access to the right technical resources. Adequate turnaround time.
These are standard criteria when deciding whether to hire a freelance writer or collaborate with an agency.
However, your organisation risks facing unpleasant surprises by leaving out collaboration with an agency.
This article will share five specific, experience-driven reasons why hiring an agency to write your B2B SaaS case study is better.
Let’s learn more!
5 Reasons to Hire an Agency for Preparing B2B SaaS Case Study
Here is our list of the top five reasons to partner with an agency for B2B SaaS case study writing:
#1 – Inability to Understand Your Audience
#2 – Utilising the Wrong Tone or Style
#3 – Selling Instead of Providing Value
#4 – Unable to Meet Guidelines
#5 – Performing Just Enough to Get By
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
#1 – Inability to Understand Your Audience
The legendary Harvard University marketing professor Theodore Levitt once said, “sell the hole, not the drill.”He went on, “people don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.”
A critical “why” to publish a B2B (SaaS) case study is getting the point across to prospects about how your business can help them get the work done.
C-suite executives reading your case study require deep, functional insights. For example, how did your business expertise solve similar pain points of related businesses?
For example, a SaaS content marketing agency’s target audience doesn’t ask, “What is content marketing?” Instead, they are most likely asking, “How can a SaaS content marketing agency bring me leads?”
A partnering content marketing agency can effortlessly communicate with the subject matter experts inside the organisation to provide a high level of nuanced understanding.
By ensuring the absence of fluff, engaging writing, and showcasing compelling pain-point resonance, your B2B case study stands to perform better.
#2 – Utilising the Wrong Tone or Style
Completely outsourcing case study writing to a freelance writer is flawed since you cannot expect them to understand the nuances of your product’s positioning extensively.
Moreover, it is a stretch to expect a freelance writer to appeal to the emotions of your target buyer persona while working in a silo. Bringing in an expert to pen the content piece is not optimal either—your case study will reflect their ideas, not yours.
The result?
This approach will cause the familiar problem of senior executives telling the writer that the portrayal of internal communication is wrong, amongst many other issues.
#3 – Selling Instead of Providing Value
A better approach to preparing a B2B case study is to inform and educate the target audience.
Let your prospects understand how you implement your services instead of giving a sales pitch. The reason is that value trumps believability.
This approach can help your case study outperform since, for many B2B companies, the prospect understands the topic better than a regular freelance writer. In addition, it can better resonate with the points that they live and breathe daily in their jobs.
#4 – Unable to Meet Guidelines
Your case study project has a lot hanging on to it.
Your business exposes itself to many risks by putting the onus of writing and delivering the case study on a freelance writer.
From the outset, your business requires an upfront and clear understanding of the scope of the project, availability of revising the drafts, turnaround time, and ownership of the content asset.
Your business should consider being careful about not leaving anything to chance – and rely on experienced and dependable partners.
Additionally, establish a joint agreement on the “why” of your B2B case study.
Is your business attempting to increase brand awareness, capture more leads, or assist the sales team in closing more deals?
Additionally, what is your case study attempting to highlight? For example, an increase in quality leads, earned revenue, or a return on investment?
However, when your organisation partners with the right content marketing agency, they create your content assets – such as case studies – as an extension of your marketing team.
The right agency instils a proper understanding of your business and what makes it unique. Then, they work at bringing out your unique voice and helping you “talk” in the desired manner.
An inherent disadvantage of collaborating with freelance writers to prepare B2B case studies is they don’t have the opportunity to work alongside the in-house employees who have deep insights into your customers’ problems.
A lack of immediate access to the sales team, project managers, and solution managers put freelancers on the back foot to accessing specific information to raise the content’s quality.
Certain sections of the content piece likely get published using Google and guesswork.
Parting Thoughts
We hope this content piece helps your business make an informed decision about outsourcing case study writing to a freelancer.
Several factors can help you while making your decision. Such as
Discovering if the writer can prepare an engaging, insightful and resonating case study
Verifying if the writer can bring out and amplify your organisation’s unique voice
Establishing a joint agreement on the scope of the case study writing project
We are a content marketing agency that strives to bring simplicity, persuasion and relatability to content (such as case studies) backed by thorough research. We curate the best content per your company’s requirements and philosophy to attract your target audience.
If your organisation wants its content marketing strategy designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
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A platform like HARO allows sharing your expertise on a particular topic and getting rewarded for it.
It’s a win-win situation!
Moreover, adding HARO to your link-building strategy can tangibly help get highly authoritative outlets’ recognition.
We understand that you want your knowledge and expertise on a topic to get noticed.
Gone are the days of presenting expert responses in a less-than-exemplary format. You should know how to use the tool in the right way.
This article will explain how to effectively use Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and become a trusted voice in your industry.
Let’s learn more!
Getting Started on HARO
Before we get into the details, here is a quick overview of the online service.
Overview of HARO
HARO stands for “Help a Reporter Out.” It is an online service that helps to connect domain experts as sources to journalists and bloggers.
The HARO database comprises over one million sources and more than 75,000 journalists and bloggers.
HARO sends queries from journalists worldwide, and respondents stand to get featured in their published stories. Journalists and bloggers can submit queries to HARO for assistance with their research work.
HARO emails its queries three times daily, at 5:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m., and 5:35 p.m. EST, Monday to Friday.
A typical HARO request includes the query, its inclusion requirements, the submission deadline, and an anonymous email address to provide insights and commentary.
How to Answer A HARO Query
Patience is the secret to succeeding on HARO.
You should consider expressing yourself by putting your best foot forward. The presentation of your ideas will elevate you on the platform.
We suggest picking only the relevant queries from the entire compilation. You can respond to the selected questions based on your experiences.
You stand a good chance of getting published by following the correct practices to structure responses.
But first, time to create your HARO account!
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Choose Your Area of Expertise
First and foremost, evaluate and choose your areas of expertise. Following this, HARO requires you to answer queries from the desired fields.
It is preferable to select areas where your industry and experiences lie. This approach can help you offer value and pitch your ideas and business.
Properly Structure Your Response
The next step is to diligently structure your response to the query.
ProTip: Start your answer with a catchy line. Time is of the essence; this will immediately draw the reader’s attention!
Proceed by introducing yourself and talking about what you do.
This helps to build a link and allows the journalist to tag your response as relevant.
Keeping your response’s body concise and articulate enables the journalist to process and assess your response comfortably.
Avoid Generic Answers
It is worth stressing the advice to avoid giving generic answers.
It is advisable to prevent providing generic responses. Journalists are looking for your subjective experiences to draw quotes and publish authoritative pieces.
Ensure personalising your answer.
Provide Legitimacy
The final step requires including a clear headshot and enclosing links to allow the journalist to avoid tagging your response as spam.
We understand that a “well done” is better than a “well said,” so let’s learn from a walkthrough of responding to a HARO query.
Walkthrough of a Sample HARO Response
Follow the proceeding walkthrough to better understand how to answer a HARO query and what constitutes a valuable answer.
Read the Fine Print
Read the details carefully!
Ensure to take a good look at the question, the pattern, the requirements and the eligibility criteria.
Writing the Response
Start with your introduction and briefly exhibit your relevance to answering the question.
For example,
“Hi [First name],
I’m a [designation at organisation] with [relevant subject-matter experience].”
Add your answer in points to keep it organised and increase readability.
Structure your answer and maintain alignment with the question.
For example, a particular query required views on self-reflection for leadership roles.
Finally, don’t forget to link your social profiles along with a headshot to showcase authenticity.
HARO Best Practices
We suggest bearing in mind certain best practices – do’s and don’t – to maximise your chances of success.
Practices Worth Following
You should endeavour not to skip any of the following practices!
Personalise Your Answer
Personalise the answer and base it on your experiences. The journalists are in search of credible responses backed by valuable expertise!
Maintain Articulation
It is vital to bear in mind that journalists are combing through a lot of answers.
Keeping your answers concise and articulate helps to deliver your idea effectively.
Structure Your Content
It helps to use a structured format to answer HARO queries.
Consider starting with an introduction about yourself and who you represent.
This establishes credibility on how your experience is relevant to the query.
Provide Valuable Social Proof
The most straightforward way for a journalist to trust your response is by having access to social proof.
For example, attaching your portfolio, social media profiles, and testimonials allow the journalist to count your legitimacy.
Share Insights
It is worth skipping to give seemingly apparent answers.
Being original and sharing responses backed by valuable experiences can be incredibly useful.
Practices Worth Avoiding
Here are some don’ts that can limit your success on HARO.
No Obvious Self-Promotion
Avoid blatantly promoting your company.
Soliciting backlinks can get your account banned on HARO.
Respect the Eligibility Criteria
Journalists can ask for hyper-specialised answers.
However, even without criteria, you should consider answering queries in your domain for a better chance of acceptance.
Follow the Deadline
Every HARO query has a deadline. Ensure submitting a response within the deadline!
Parting Thoughts
Effectively using HARO can help garner recognition, establish authority, establish credibility, and exponentially improve your backlink profile.
It is possible to build strong and valuable relationships on HARO—naturally and organically.
Moreover, your business does not have to stalk prominent journalists or pay hefty PR fees. Here is a snapshot of a LinkedIn post I published earlier.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s needs and ethos because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Your business can start to benefit from the free exposure that HARO offers. If the process seems overwhelming, block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
I often read that starting the day by reading a newsletter is a good habit for building productivity.
Moreover, there’s nothing like reading a newsletter that gives us actionable insights to solve an existing problem.
However, subscribing to scores of newsletters without the time to enjoy reading them results in a cluttered inbox!
In this piece, we share our list of the top 20 newsletters catering to solving different challenges around the growth of B2B SaaS, like finance, pricing, marketing, sales, fundraising, product-led growth and more!
Let’s dive in!
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
This newsletter aims to take a deep dive into the playbooks that are helping scale the fastest growing startups.
Who is it For
If you’re a SaaS enthusiast who loves learning about SaaS revenue growth – monetisation or product-led growth – this newsletter is a great fit for you.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter boasts a readership of 15,000+ founders, investors, operators and SaaS growth enthusiasts. Additionally, readers receive in-depth case studies and learnings on SaaS pricing, go-to-market strategies, and more.
About the Author
Kyle Poyar is an operating partner at OpenView, a leading VC investing in product-led growth startups. You can also connect with Kyle Poyar on LinkedIn.
This newsletter focuses on financing and scaling early-stage B2B software and SaaS companies.
Who is it For
If you’re a SaaS founder looking for knowledge on financing your SaaS business and running successful fundraising, this newsletter is suitable for you.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter offers valuable insights from a VC perspective. Readers can understand where the market is heading—backed by expert opinions.
About the Author
Patrick Mathieson is a startup investor. He works as part of the early-stage venture team at Toba Capital. Patrick’s focus areas include B2B software, vertical SaaS, and more. You can also connect with Patrick Mathieson on LinkedIn.
Frequency of the Newsletter
This newsletter offers a new issue every fortnight.
This newsletter offers strategic advice and tactics for building and scaling B2B marketing.
Who is it For
If you are the founder of an early or growth-stage B2B SaaS company looking for advice on marketing strategies, recruitment consulting, or a network with similar founders, this newsletter can be a great asset.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter is subscribed to by a community of over 10,000 marketers, growth experts, and founders. The newsletter’s authors have worked at fast-growing SaaS companies (Asana, Box, Intercom, Carta, etc.) over the last 15 years.
This newsletter offers authentic content such as blogs, tweets, podcasts, and a breakdown of financials to better understand SaaS businesses following a product-led growth model.
Who is it For
If you are enthusiastic about SaaS and product-led growth, this newsletter offers a fantastic community to join.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
Top of the Lyne has a subscriber base of revenue leaders from leading SaaS companies such as Canva, Stripe, Notion, Figma, and more. Moreover, the newsletter curates a weekly list of the best resources to learn from and stay updated on the happenings in the world of SaaS product-led growth.
This newsletter offers in-depth research and actionable organic growth strategies for SaaS businesses.
Who is it For
Founders of early-stage SaaS startups will find this newsletter especially useful. This newsletter is an excellent resource for generating ideas for the growth of SaaS businesses.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter offers exclusive in-depth research on SaaS growth. Moreover, subscribers can access a private community of SaaS founders and marketers to solve growth and model-related challenges of their SaaS businesses.
About the Author
Ankur Tiwari is passionate about strategically helping build and scale early-stage SaaS businesses using organic strategies without relying on paid ads. You can connect with Ankur Tiwari on LinkedIn.
This newsletter offers 3-4 actionable tips to scale B2B SaaS businesses in every issue.
Who is it For
The Startup Business Tips newsletter is highly relevant for founders and leaders of early-stage startups (from ideation to Series B funding).
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter offers vital knowledge around topics such as validating business ideas, finding paying customers for your SaaS, implementing a powerful SaaS growth strategy, and more.
About the Author
Alexander Estner is a freelance startup advisor and commercial specialist (in sales, marketing, and business development) with over a decade of experience in digital startups (SaaS and marketplaces). You can connect with Alexander Estner on LinkedIn for consultation or support.
Frequency of the Newsletter
This newsletter offers a new issue on a fortnightly basis.
This newsletter offers the most relevant, informative all-around SaaS resources and best practices.
Who is it For
This newsletter is for SaaS enthusiasts who want access to the latest and greatest news/resources from the world of SaaS.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter offers a great insight into the minds of B2B SaaS fund operators who take controlling stakes in companies and operate them for high–growth. Moreover, the newsletter offers access to a community of enthusiasts who help each other solve everyday problems in SaaS.
About the Author
The SaaS Playbook newsletter is collectively published by the team at Scaleworks. Scaleworks is a B2B SaaS fund which invests in and operates high-potential B2B SaaS companies. You can visit the Scaleworks website to learn more.
This newsletter is an advice column for readers to seek help in building products, driving business growth, and accelerating their careers.
Who is it For
If you are eager to learn more about product management, scaling startups, and building your career roadmap in SaaS, this newsletter is for you.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter offers access to a pool of 270,000+ subscribers collectively participating in learning and implementing actionable strategies to grow as professionals in the B2B and SaaS space.
About the Author
Lenny Rachitsky is a growth-focused digital product specialist. He is an acclaimed writer, podcaster, angel investor and job board host. Lenny has previously worked for 5+ years at Airbnb, having been the product lead for the firm’s supply growth. You can also connect with Lenny Rachitsky on LinkedIn.
Frequency of the Newsletter
The newsletter offers a paid and free subscription. Paid subscribers receive new issues every Tuesday morning and a “community wisdom” post every Friday morning. Unpaid subscribers receive roughly one email a month.
This newsletter offers deep-dive research on profitable micro-SaaS ideas. If you require proof, you’ll be glad to learn that the author has already validated over 800+ such ideas.
Who is it For
Micro Saas Idea is a newsletter for tech enthusiasts and marketers looking for their next profitable micro-SaaS idea and achieving $1K MRR to $10K MRR.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter helps readers pick small ideas working for a few people and how best to bundle the product for a small niche. Moreover, readers can learn how they can replicate the success of similar products—by starting small with MVP and building in public!
About the Author
Upen offers deep expertise in scaling startups, advising founders, and offering research on choosing profitable and best working Micro SaaS ideas. His products have successfully reached “Product Hunt’s #1 Product of the Day” rank. You can follow Upen on Twitter.
This newsletter focuses on starting conversations on trends observed in data and tech by Sarah Krasnik. She presents her takes on the world of tech, data, marketing, and business.
Who is it For
If you are curious about learning better systems engineering, data-driven decision-making, and growing the voices of women and minorities in tech, you should consider subscribing to the newsletter.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
Sarah’s Newsletter is a good option for readers who want to interact with a community of like-minded technology enthusiasts.
About the Author
Sarah Krasnik holds a BA from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University and an MS from Northwestern University. You can follow Sarah Krasnik on Twitter.
This is a newsletter to explore the most exciting things happening in the world of technology.
Who is it For
This newsletter is for readers who prefer the quality of content over regular publishing. The author promises to publish new issues when the content is interesting through and through and not a moment sooner.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The API Economy attempts to bridge the gap between deep technical understanding of abstract concepts and turn them into easily digestible explanations—without being watered down. Readers can expect coverage on diverse topics such as APIs, cryptocurrencies, to new and exciting startup ideas.
About the Author
Peter Schroeder is a lifelong technologist and an innovation enthusiast. He possesses over a decade of experience working across high-growth SaaS companies. He is currently a director at Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology company. You can connect with Peter Schroeder on LinkedIn.
This newsletter offers top insights, lessons and learnings on how to scale faster in SaaS.
Who is it For
This newsletter is ideal for SaaS founders striving to learn how to scale their business from $0 to $100 Million in ARR.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter is representative of SaaStr, an undisputed thought leader in building SaaS businesses. It offers a great community of people trying to build companies and learn from one another.
About the Author
Jason M. Lemkin is a SaaS enthusiast, founder and VC. He runs SaaStr, the world’s largest community for B2B/SaaS founders. Jason has a formidable educational background with degrees from Harvard, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley. You can connect with Jason M. Lemkin on LinkedIn.
This newsletter offers a weekly data-driven analysis of SaaS companies.
Who is it For
If you are an entrepreneur looking for frameworks (especially data-driven) to evaluate your private SaaS business, this newsletter can help create a blueprint for scaling your business into a successful public company.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter breaks down the latest valuation trends (and the operating metrics driving those changes) behind public SaaS companies.
About the Author
Jamin Ball is a Venture Capitalist specialising in investing in enterprise software businesses. He possesses over a decade of experience working with businesses like Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. He is currently a partner at Altimeter Capital. You can connect with Jamin Ball on LinkedIn.
This newsletter decodes the world of “starting up” in SaaS.
Who is it For
This newsletter is especially suitable for SaaS founders in India who aspire to learn from the best in the business.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter delivers crucial, actionable insights that first-time SaaS founders need when they startup.
About the Author
This newsletter is published by Together, a founder-led VC working with early-stage startups. The VC has built a cohesive and vast network of 150+ founders and operators to offer focused tactical and operational assistance. You can learn more by visiting Together Fund’s website.
The newsletter offers three pieces of advice drawn from thoughtful exchanges and interviews on Relay – a community initiative by Chargebee.
Who is it For
If you are a SaaS startup founder questioning long-held business playbooks and ways of doing things, this newsletter can help with the “day-to-day of starting up” by sharing contextual and diverse conversations with accomplished founders.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
The newsletter offers insights from the co-founders of the SaaS giant Chargebee, Krish Subramanian and Rajaraman Santhanam. They share access to knowledge sought-after by SaaS founders, such as hiring, managing cash flow, and building products.
About the Author
The team at Relay publishes this newsletter. Relay is known as the “second brain for SaaS startups.” It is a curation by Chargebee and publishes hundreds of context-rich AMAs, interviews, and discussions with founders. You can learn more by visiting Relay’s website.
Frequency of the Newsletter
This newsletter offers a new issue every fortnight.
This newsletter specialises in offering product marketing insights for B2B SaaS.
Who is it For
This newsletter is ideal for B2B SaaS professionals who want product marketing insights while running pre-seed businesses or even public companies.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter is appropriate for someone looking to learn more about product positioning, messaging, product launches, and go-to-market strategies.
About the Author
This newsletter is published by the team at Olivine Marketing. It is a full-service product marketing consultancy agency that supports a range of clients, from pre-seed (and pre-launch) startups to public companies. You can learn more about the team by visiting Olivine Marketing’s website.
This newsletter focuses on writing about founders, technology, and business and discussing valuable books.
Who is it For
This newsletter is ideal for founders, VCs, startup employees, and enthusiasts of the early-stage ecosystem.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
As a subscriber, you can learn more about B2B software, the startup ecosystem, and updates around the author’s portfolio companies. Interestingly, 3 out of 4 newsletter subscribers are either startup founders or VCs!
About the Author
Siddharth Shah works at Malpani Ventures. His role involves looking after end-to-end transactions in equity and debt – sourcing, diligence, investment and portfolio management of 25+ startups and limited partnership investments. Siddharth funds pre-seed and seed-stage tech-led companies in India with a first-check ticket size of $100K to $250K. You can connect with Siddharth Shah on LinkedIn.
Frequency of the Newsletter
This newsletter offers a new issue twice each month.
Mostly metrics is a newsletter on highly actionable financial metrics and business models—business insights you can easily understand.
Who is it For
If you are keen to learn more about managing finances for SaaS businesses, this newsletter is a helpful resource. Readers can learn about startup SaaS metrics, financial forecasting, and fundraising.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
More than just a newsletter, it is an attempt to bridge the gap between high-calibre people and high-calibre startups. Readers can also join the “Mostly talent” collective. It is an invite-only reverse job board for people with finance, strategy and operations backgrounds to apply for new opportunities.
About the Author
CJ Gustafson is a CFO at PartsTech, a tech ordering platform stopping the hassle of professionals buying auto parts. He has remarkable professional experience building FP&A (financial planning and analysis) teams in different SaaS ventures. You can connect with CJ Gustafson on LinkedIn.
This newsletter offers an actionable tip in every issue to build sustainable revenue growth for enterprise B2B SaaS startups.
Who is it For
This newsletter is ideal for founders of early-stage enterprise B2B SaaS startups looking for deep expertise on scaling from $0 to $20m in ARR.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter shares sales frameworks for hyper-growth SaaS startups. Each issue offers actionable insights into building a world-class GTM (go-to-market) organisation.
About the Author
Wayne Morris has over two decades of experience building multiple fast-growth enterprise B2B SaaS companies. Currently, he is a consultant and coach to founders of B2B SaaS who have raised a series A and are aiming to evolve from founder-led sales. You can also connect with Wayne Morris on LinkedIn.
The stretch vp weekly newsletter delivers a collection of the best discussions, articles, and podcasts for sales leaders in SaaS.
Who is it For
Sales leaders in SaaS – VP, Director – should consider subscribing to the newsletter to access valuable learnings, insights, and experiences, as well as the best practices to avoid and overcome common hurdles in SaaS sales.
Reasons to Consider Subscribing
This newsletter complies and shares endless content from an aggregation of sales leaders in SaaS. You can learn more about SaaS sales recruitment, leadership, motivation and, overcoming objections. Not just that, stretch vp weekly also discusses tech stacks, systems, dealing with VCs & fundraising, partnerships and much more.
About the Author
Grant Hanson is an enterprise sales leader. He is trusted as a mentor, motivator, leader, coach, strategic thinker, and builder. Grant’s areas of expertise lie in SaaS, digital media and technology. You can also connect with Grant Hanson on LinkedIn.
The legend of the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s exchanges with his courtier Birbal has become part of folklore.
Birbal’s quick and adaptable mind, engaging wit and intelligence have inspired generations to solve problems creatively.
We strive to do something similar at Concurate.
We endeavour to bring stories of outmanoeuvring “Birbal”s of the B2B SaaS world.
You are the ones who have been there and done that.
These stories can provide great mental stimulation for overcoming business growth challenges.
If you are open to trying us out, subscribe to our newsletter now!
We send value to your inbox only once in 15 days.
Reasons to Subscribe to Each Newsletter
Growth Unhinged
The newsletter boasts a readership of 15,000+ founders, investors, operators and SaaS growth enthusiasts. Additionally, readers receive in-depth case studies and learnings on SaaS pricing, go-to-market strategies, and more.
The Down Round
This newsletter offers valuable insights from a VC perspective. Readers can understand where the market is heading—backed by expert opinions.
MKT1 Newsletter
The newsletter is subscribed to by a community of over 10,000 marketers, growth experts, and founders. The newsletter’s authors have worked at fast-growing SaaS companies (Asana, Box, Intercom, Carta, etc.) over the last 15 years.
Top of the Lyne
Top of the Lyne has a subscriber base of revenue leaders from leading SaaS companies such as Canva, Stripe, Notion, Figma, and more. Moreover, the newsletter curates a weekly list of the best resources to learn from and stay updated on the happenings in the world of SaaS product-led growth.
Organic SaaS Growth
The newsletter offers exclusive in-depth research on SaaS growth. Moreover, subscribers can access a private community of SaaS founders and marketers to solve growth and model-related challenges of their SaaS businesses.
Startup Business Tips
This newsletter offers vital knowledge around topics such as validating business ideas, finding paying customers for your SaaS, implementing a powerful SaaS growth strategy, and more.
The SaaS Playbook
This newsletter offers a great insight into the minds of B2B SaaS fund operators who take controlling stakes in companies and operate them for high–growth. Moreover, the newsletter offers access to a community of enthusiasts who help each other solve everyday problems in SaaS.
Lenny’s Newsletter
The newsletter offers access to a pool of 270,000+ subscribers collectively participating in learning and implementing actionable strategies to grow as professionals in the B2B and SaaS space.
Micro Saas Idea
The newsletter helps readers pick small ideas working for a few people and how best to bundle the product for a small niche. Moreover, readers can learn how they can replicate the success of similar products—by starting small with MVP and building in public!
Sarah’s Newsletter
Sarah’s Newsletter is a good option for readers who want to interact with a community of like-minded technology enthusiasts.
The API Economy
The API Economy attempts to bridge the gap between deep technical understanding of abstract concepts and turn them into easily digestible explanations—without being watered down. Readers can expect coverage on diverse topics such as APIs, cryptocurrencies, to new and exciting startup ideas.
Cloud Thoughts
This newsletter is representative of SaaStr, an undisputed thought leader in building SaaS businesses. It offers a great community of people trying to build companies and learn from one another.
Clouded Judgement
This newsletter breaks down the latest valuation trends (and the operating metrics driving those changes) behind public SaaS companies.
Scale Together
This newsletter delivers crucial, actionable insights that first-time SaaS founders need when they startup.
The SaaS Baton
The newsletter offers insights from the co-founders of the SaaS giant Chargebee, Krish Subramanian and Rajaraman Santhanam. They share access to knowledge sought-after by SaaS founders, such as hiring, managing cash flow, and building products.
Inside Olivine
This newsletter is appropriate for someone looking to learn more about product positioning, messaging, product launches, and go-to-market strategies.
Siddharth’s Newsletter
As a subscriber, you can learn more about B2B software, the startup ecosystem, and updates around the author’s portfolio companies. Interestingly, 3 out of 4 newsletter subscribers are either startup founders or VCs!
Mostly metrics
More than just a newsletter, it is an attempt to bridge the gap between high-calibre people and high-calibre startups. Readers can also join the “Mostly talent” collective. It is an invite-only reverse job board for people with finance, strategy and operations backgrounds to apply for new opportunities.
Zero to 20
This newsletter shares sales frameworks for hyper-growth SaaS startups. Each issue offers actionable insights into building a world-class GTM (go-to-market) organisation.
stretch vp weekly
This newsletter complies and shares endless content from an aggregation of sales leaders in SaaS. You can learn more about SaaS sales recruitment, leadership, motivation and, overcoming objections. Not just that, stretch vp weekly also discusses tech stacks, systems, dealing with VCs & fundraising, partnerships and much more.
If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.
Red Adair
Aah! There are so many agencies; how can I choose the right one?
Will the writers at the agency understand my industry and business domain?
Will the agency be able to bring me the desired results?
What kind of investments do I need to make in terms of time, effort and money?
Will the agency be able to provide me with a compelling copy?
Have you been looking for answers to these questions to select a B2B SaaS case study writing service agency?
According to the 2022 B2B Content Marketing report, the top challenge for B2B marketers who outsource is finding partners with adequate topical expertise (65%).
Hiring a B2B SaaS case study writing agency can be difficult. To make your search easier, we’d like to share our list of the top 5 case study writing services agencies for B2B SaaS businesses.
Additionally, we’ll analyse them using a 5-step framework to establish a better fit.
Let’s get started!
Choosing From Top 5 B2B SaaS Case Study Writing Services Agencies
Here is our list of the top 5 B2B SaaS case study writing services agencies:
#1 – Case Study Buddy
#2 – Concurate
#3 – Uplift Content
#4 – Radix Communications
#5 – Goodman Lantern
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Concurate is a boutique content marketing agency that works with medium-sized B2B SaaS businesses.
Process
Concurate’s case study writing service first involves scheduling interviews to understand more about your business. The team extensively discusses how your organisation helped solve the client’s business problem.
Moreover, Concurate offers regular, timely updates throughout the course of the case study writing service project. This is vital in case your business requires specific approvals or a change in the presentation of information.
Finally, after submitting the draft case study, Concurate conducts review calls to implement changes its clients require.
Package
Concurate specialises in preparing B2B SaaS case studies in two formats.
Primarily, Concurate prepares a blog-style case study for its clients that are readily discoverable on search engine result pages.
Concurate also prepares case studies in a one-pager or a skimmable slide deck format. The benefit of this approach is that C-suite leaders and key decision-makers can easily grasp the crucial aspects of the case study.
Proficiency
Concurate attempts to create content that brings business, not just traffic.
To achieve this, Concurate ensures to bring out a business’s unique messaging, called “internal chatter,” by giving readers a sneak peek into the organisation’s thought process.
This approach weaves in stories from the organisation’s day-to-day work to amplify its distinctive voice and highlight its approach to business.
Proof of Work
Concurate withholds access to its previous case study writing service projects to maintain its clients’ confidentiality. However, you can contact Concurate to gather more information.
Additionally, you can visit the link to read Concurate’s available customer success story.
Pricing
Concurate charges $1500 for its case study package.
Uplift Content is a boutique content creation studio with a track record of success with high-growth B2B SaaS companies.
Process
Uplift Content’s case study writing service involves creating a strategy, establishing a project management process, optimising content performance, and more.
You can click the link to learn more about their service process.
Package
Uplift Content’s three packages – Standard, Enhanced, and White glove – offer different benefits.
The packages differ in aspects like the number of rounds of revisions, receipt of email updates, access to status calls, and priority scheduling.
Proficiency
Uplift Content provides your B2B SaaS business with a dedicated, experienced copywriter to provide a personalised business case study writing service.
Their small, hand-picked team ensures to understand your company, product and audience truly.
Proof of Work
Uplift Content has worked with SaaS brands like LeanData and WalkMe.
Radix Communications – B2B technology copywriters, as they say – specialise in writing copy for B2B tech agencies and brands.
Process
Radix Communications’ case study writing process involves receiving the initial brief, communication with the sales team, an update on the delivery timeline, feedback implementation, and more.
You can learn more about the process by visiting the link.
Package
Radix Communications offers case study writers who are also skilled interviewers.
Additionally, a project manager is assigned direct access to your writer’s task file, making rescheduling quicker and easier.
The agency also runs rolling case study programmes for some of its larger clients. This is vital to ensure a steady flow of up-to-date client success stories.
Proficiency
Radix Communications specialises in B2B tech copywriting.
Aside from B2B SaaS case study writing services, they also create assets like ebooks, web copies, emails and tweets.
Moreover, the agency offers dedicated project management support and gives you one point of contact for your whole project.
Proof of Work
Radix Communications has worked with SaaS brands such as Adobe and Salesforce.
You can view all work done by the agency, including public client case studies, by visiting the link.
Goodman Lantern is an award-winning content marketing agency specialising in content marketing services, video marketing services, and more.
The agency understands the complexities of working in 30+ industries. Their workforce consists of remote women workers, many of whom are the breadwinners of their families.
Process
Goodman Lantern’s delivery process involves three steps – Setup, Content Research, and Content Editing & Format.
To learn in detail about each sub-step, click on the link.
Package
Goodman Lantern offers three tailored content marketing packages – Start-Up Plan, Enterprise Plan, and Bespoke Package.
Each package offers considerably different benefits depending on the goals and budget.
The best B2B SaaS case studies showcase how your business solved a significant problem for a client. This presentation comes alive by offering rich context around the featured brand. In addition, a standout B2B SaaS case study can establish a strong connection with the readers by sharing relatable pain points.
Preparing a compelling case study makes it imperative to choose the right agency. Shortlisting the agency which is “right” for your business can get easier by
Learning which industry and business growth stage the agency offers its case study writing services
Understanding the process that the agency follows to deliver its services. Does it align with the way your business works?
Discovering what packages the agency offers – their benefits, pricing, etc.
Enquiring about previous projects and customer success stories to confirm marketing claims
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that strives to bring simplicity, persuasion and relatability to content (such as case studies) backed by thorough research. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy to attract your target audience.
If your organisation wants its content marketing strategy designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Microsoft Excel’s flexibility and low barrier to entry make it a helpful, versatile solution in various contexts across industries.
However, when the user’s company expands, it becomes increasingly challenging to manage multiple tasks using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets. The reason is that while Microsoft Excel can cater to a particular use case, different software can offer potentially improved productivity.
Astute entrepreneurs can spot a need in the market and work to resolve those pain points.
We hold our highest regard for entrepreneurs who find innovative solutions to improve tools touching people’s lives on a massive scale.
With that said, we’d like to spotlight 20 entrepreneurs and business leaders at the helm of running intuitive and user-friendly SaaS applications replacing Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets.
Our Favourite 20 SaaS Products Replacing Microsoft Excel
Here is our shortlist of the 20 SaaS products that are replacing spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets:
#1 – Triangle IP
#2 – Asana
#3 – ProHance
#4 – Zluri
#5 – Document360
#6 – TranZact
#7 – AuditFlo
#8 – Freshsales
#9 – Mews
#10 – Logibricks
#11 – Asset Infinity
#12 – Centage
#13 – Sigma Computing
#14 – FranchiseSoft
#15 – ScanWriter
#16 – AccountsIQ
#17 – Sprinto
#18 – Monday.com
#19 – Onthego.AI
#20 – UpKeep
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Triangle IP’s TIP ToolTM is a patent management tool for individual inventors, patent practitioners, and portfolio managers of small to medium enterprises. Triangle IP helps its target audience streamline its innovation management process.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Triangle IP
Using Microsoft Excel for IP management requires a lot of manual work. Therefore, it increases the risk of inadvertent human errors. Businesses also face a higher probability of handling obsolete data.
Additionally, it also limits collaboration withholding the team’s creativity and potential. While spreadsheet programs like Google Spreadsheets can help resolve this aspect, they are unlikely to make for a perfect substitute.
On the other hand, Triangle IP enables teams to facilitate effective collaboration to refine potentially patentable ideas. It also maintains the confidentiality of sensitive IP-related information.
Pricing
Triangle IP offers three pricing plans. Apart from their free tier, you can avail of other premium plans ranging from 50 USD per month or 495 USD annually. Triangle IP also offers a custom tier. You can learn more by visiting Triangle IP’s pricing page.
Asana is a task management software with various features like projects, workspaces, tasks, and subtasks. Asana also offers dedicated sections for project managers to manage the tasks of their clients and teams.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Asana
Managing project tasks and schedules in Microsoft Excel is a cumbersome process. Project managers must use complicated calculations, colour code, and lock cells.
Moreover, spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets are unable to offer users the ability to configure their network sharing.
Alternatively, Asana helps project managers to keep their projects organised, visualise progress, and hit project deadlines on time. They can also track individual tasks and integrate them with other tools with Asana.
Asana makes it all possible due to features like dynamic dashboards, boards, and calendar views.
Pricing
Asana has three pricing tiers. Besides their free tier, they offer premium and business plans ranging from 11 to 25 USD per month with multiple features and software integrations. You can learn more about these by viewing their pricing plans.
ProHance is an operations management platform that enables firms to optimise staff productivity with deep insights into individual employee and team performance.
Microsoft Excel Vs. ProHance
Microsoft Excel provides partial visibility into an organisation’s operational processes. However, it also has drawbacks regarding efficient employee monitoring, as it is prone to human manipulation.
Furthermore, spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets can be tedious and time-consuming. In addition, they require manual input of attendance and updates on progress on deliverables.
As an alternative, ProHance enables businesses to monitor progress on different tasks and projects in real-time. ProHance also empowers firms to develop custom rules and workflows to streamline job routing, task prioritisation, and monitor progress, all through a unified portal.
Pricing
You can contact ProHance’s sales team to get a quote on their customised pricing plans for your company’s needs.
Zluri is a Gartner-recognized enterprise SaaS management platform for SaaS business founders, CXOs, and teams. Zluri enables SaaS organisations to buy, discover, manage, and automate their SaaS from a single dashboard.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Zluri
Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets are potentially more time-consuming, prone to errors, and difficult to manage, especially for SaaS subscription management.
One of the reasons for this is that SaaS applications are continually in and out of organisations, with frequent updates. Using Microsoft Excel increases the risk of your data being obsolete in such a scenario.
Zluri offers a bird’s eye view of the entire SaaS ecosystem. In addition, it provides real-time reporting features through a centralised dashboard.
Moreover, Zluri integrates with Google Workspace, Zoom, Zoho, and more than 500+ applications.
Pricing
You can reach out to the team at Zluri to get a quote on their pricing plans customised to your organisational requirements.
Document360 assists teams in collaborating, creating, and publishing a self-service knowledge base. Their ideal customers include founders, CXOs, team managers, and associates of different verticals across various industries.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Document360
There is no doubt that spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets are helpful with data collection and documentation.
However, users encounter limitations regarding real-time collaboration, categorising multiple documents, and exporting them into different file formats. Moreover, integrating additional software is also limited to Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets – a handy feature to manage a knowledge base.
Document360 has various features, like a knowledge base portal that helps in category management, accessing analytics, and more. Additionally, users can seamlessly add Document360’s knowledge base assistant to any SaaS product or website to provide on-demand assistance to their customers.
Pricing
Document360 offers four pricing plans. Apart from their free tier, you can avail of other premium plans ranging from 99 USD to 499 USD. You can visit the link for more information on Document360’s pricing plans.
TranZact is an easy-to-use ERP software for inventory managers, manufacturers, and D2C SMEs that helps with inventory management.
Microsoft Excel Vs. TranZact
Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets, at their best, provide a restricted view into the movement of inventory. Moreover, they require manual input of data to track activity.
TranZact, on the other hand, provides a holistic view of the inventory and facilitates multichannel coordination. Such features tangibly increase a business’s cost-effectiveness.
Inventory managers can easily track the movements of goods between warehouses and sales channels. These real-time data points provide unparalleled visibility into a company’s operations.
Pricing
TranZact offers four pricing plans. Apart from their free plan, you can avail of other premium plans starting from 25 USD. Visit the link for more information on TranZact’s pricing plans.
AuditFlo is a mobile-first digital checklist application designed to conduct audits to increase a company’s safety, quality, operation, and compliance standards. The target customers of AuditFlo include safety managers, quality managers, and operation managers of enterprises.
Microsoft Excel Vs. AuditFlo
Using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets for audits tend to have many loopholes. As a result, businesses become prone to human negligence and data manipulation.
On the contrary, AuditFlo helps organisations quickly resolve issues and offers real-time reporting through instant notifications. AuditFlo also offers features like custom digital checklists and dynamic dashboards.
Using AuditFlo also ensures increased accountability thanks to features like timestamps and digital signatures.
Pricing
AuditFlo offers a free tier. In addition, you can avail of their premium features through plans based on your company’s safety and quality requirements. Learn more about their pricing plans by accessing the link.
Freshsales is a cloud-based sales and customer relationship management tool that assists organisations of all sizes manage relationships with their clientele.
Their ideal customers include founders, CXOs, SDRs, and business development managers. They offer features like click-to-phone, sales lead monitoring, event tracking, and more.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Freshsales
While spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets may store a large amount of data, they lack to provide a comprehensive view. Entering detailed notes in small cells can be a frustrating experience. Businesses also run the risk of managing data integrity and security.
On the flip side, Freshsales fosters seamless collaboration while automating mundane tasks. Freshsales enables easy event tracking and access to real-time reporting.
Such benefits are possible because of features like customisable fields, modules, workflows, and advanced integrations with different software.
Pricing
Freshsales offers three pricing plans. Apart from their free plan, you can avail of other premium plans starting from 12.8 USD. Visit the link for more information on Freshsales’s pricing plans.
Mews is a property management system for hospitality business owners and hotel managers. Mews simplifies and automates business operations for modern hoteliers to serve their guests.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Mews
Using spreadsheet programs for hospitality management may work at the cost of unnecessary manual efforts. Moreover, hospitality management requires effective filtering and reporting of data, at which such software tends to perform weakly.
Mews helps hotels govern their business operations, such as managing reservations and accessing various views using a centralised, real-time interface.
Pricing
Mews has eight pricing plans based on rooms and beds. You can visit the Mews pricing page to learn more.
Logibricks is a SaaS company that caters to manufacturing and retail/e-commerce businesses. Logibricks provides customers with ERP, order management systems, and payment reconciliation tools.
Their target audience includes D2C business owners, e-commerce sellers, and inventory managers.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Logibricks
A prominent drawback of spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets for order management is their susceptibility to human error. As a result, businesses can face problems like faulty inventory counts and delayed updates across sales channels.
With Logibricks, companies can organise, review, and authorise orders through a centralised control centre. In addition, features like the centralised dashboard and vendor management platform offer visibility over sales orders acquired across all B2B sales channels.
Pricing
You can contact the Logibricks team from the link to acquire a quote on their pricing plans tailored to your organisation’s needs.
Asset Infinity is an asset management software that helps asset managers and manufacturers track the maintenance of every asset, equipment, and tool centrally in real time.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Asset Infinity
Managing assets requires multiple entries due to round-the-clock updates. For example, businesses must manually include crucial maintenance due dates with Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets. Additionally, spreadsheet software is also handicapped to address support tickets.
On the other hand, Asset Infinity tracks and monitors the performance of all critical assets.
It aids asset tracking using QR codes, barcodes, and RFID tags. It also offers centralised visibility, seamless communication, and real-time reporting with the option to auto-generate reports.
Pricing
Asset Infinity offers a standard plan to accommodate up to 500 assets and items for 130 USD. You can also avail of the enterprise plan customised to your company’s requirements. For more information, access their pricing page.
Centage is a planning, budgeting, and forecasting platform to empower finance leaders to make better financial decisions.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Centage
Companies of practically any size rely on many employees to prepare budgets and forecasts. However, spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets do not allow real-time collaboration. They also necessitate using complex formulas, which increases the chance of errors.
On the other hand, Centage has rich features like performance dashboards and management reporting, among many others.
As a result, Centage offers the complete visibility and control needed to lead an organisation to growth and sustainable profitability. Centage also enables faster budgeting, reporting and forecasting while ensuring accuracy and compliance with standards.
Pricing
Centage offers standard, professional, and enterprise plans. In addition, you can request a quote based on your requirements from their sales team.
Sigma Computing is a cloud-based business intelligence platform primarily used for data exploration and visualisation.
Their target customers are decision-makers from finance, education, media, and real estate, to name a few industries.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Sigma Computing
Using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets can take time to manage unstructured and semistructured data. Users cannot also design interactive dashboards.
Sigma Computing users can visualise, analyse, and collaborate seamlessly. In addition, the software streamlines data integration to enhance overall decision-making.
This is possible thanks to features that allow you to connect to any data warehouse, share data for analysis, create scenarios, and perform “what if” analyses.
Pricing
You can contact the Sigma Computing team using the link to request a quote on their pricing tailored to your organisation’s needs.
FranchiseSoft is a franchise management software to help franchisors increase sales, reach prospects, and achieve franchisee satisfaction levels, with access to transparent reporting tools.
Microsoft Excel Vs. FranchiseSoft
Using spreadsheet programs for franchise management can hinder overall visibility and reporting. As a result, businesses can lose accountability on crucial aspects like a store’s opening, closing, and timely maintenance time.
On the other hand, using FranchiseSoft enables real-time reporting, fosters smooth collaboration, and increases overall productivity and accountability. As a result, businesses can focus on improving customer satisfaction and reducing churn.
Pricing
FranchiseSoft customises its pricing plans based on franchise requirements. You can request more information using the link.
ScanWriter allows federal agencies and fraud investigators to automate administrative tasks, focus on investigative efforts, and reveal the complex structures of criminal organisations. For example, ScanWriter enables fraud investigators to automate the laborious and time-consuming tasks of converting credit card statements (and other data) into spreadsheets and rich visual analytics.
Microsoft Excel Vs. ScanWriter
Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheet increase the risk of human error and loss of productivity in conducting fraud investigations since users need to use multiple programs to manage the entire workflow.
On the other hand, ScanWriter ensures efficiency and accuracy by swiftly processing years’ worth of financial transactions. In addition, its in-built Power BI visualisation models help to trace the movement of assets and view the “flow of funds.”
Pricing
ScanWriter charges 5495 USD for a standard license. For more information, check out their pricing plans.
AccountsIQ cloud accounting software simplifies capturing, processing, and reporting financial data across multiple locations. AccountsIQ transforms finance functions by enabling CFOs, finance directors and controllers to streamline their work.
Microsoft Excel Vs. AccountsIQ
Using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets for financial accounting requires unnecessary use of repeated manual efforts and complex formulas to perform calculations.
On the contrary, AccountsIQ helps access a holistic view of an organisation’s finances in real-time using dashboards. Users can create compelling reports and integrate software to save time and money.
Pricing
AccountsIQ offers its users three pricing options starting from 200 USD. Check out their pricing plans in detail using the link.
Sprinto is a simple and powerful software to put security compliance programs on autopilot. It seamlessly integrates with cloud setups to map entity-level controls and run fully-automated checks.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Sprinto
Using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets for compliance management is tricky. This is because spreadsheet programs lack automation to manage multiple compliance processes, including complying with government norms, safety guidelines, and vendor contracts.
Users also need help assigning tasks and accessing timely reports. Unfortunately, these drawbacks also mean missing crucial audit trails.
However, Sprinto packs critical features. For example, integrated audit success portal, role-based user access, and incident management help boost accountability, accuracy, and efficiency. As a result, businesses can increasingly manage more significant risks and avoid penalties for non-compliance.
Pricing
Sprinto offers an annual license. The costs are dynamic and depend upon the organisation’s size, geographic dispersion, and infrastructure complexity. Check out the link for more information on their pricing plans.
Monday.com is a customisable web and mobile work management platform designed to help teams and organisations gain operational efficiency. Monday.com helps in collaborating and tracking projects, workflows, and visualising data.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Monday.com
Streamlining workflows using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets can be challenging. These programs miss collaboration features such as tracking conversations, easy file sharing and managing task lists.
Monday.com enables the entire team to collaborate on a project by accessing the software to share updates and view real-time progress. Features like dashboards, Kanban setups, and Gantt charts increase productivity.
Pricing
Monday.com offers five pricing plans. Apart from their free plan, you can avail of other premium plans starting from just 8 USD. You can visit the link for more information on Monday.com’s pricing plans.
OnthegO.ai is a field service management platform to empower service teams to plan, prioritise, assign, execute and track all service activity.
Microsoft Excel Vs. OnthegO.ai
Field management requires a lot of planning, task delegation, and managing field regulation. Using spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets for field management translates to sacrificing near-perfect data accuracy, timely collaboration, and tracking and reporting progress while maintaining visibility.
OnthegO.ai can help optimise service operations, lower costs and improve productivity. Features like a customer portal, quick notifications, and smart assignments streamline management and assist organisations in leading their workforce effectively.
Pricing
OnthegO.ai offers three pricing plans. You can subscribe to their premium plans starting from just 4.99 USD. For more information, you can visit their pricing page.
UpKeep is a maintenance management software to streamline work orders, facility and asset management.
Microsoft Excel Vs. UpKeep
The capacity to act quickly is critical to the success of a maintenance program. High-performing maintenance teams often cite it as their crucial differentiator.
However, when maintenance teams use spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets to monitor asset health, schedule work orders, and review maintenance procedures, they generally work with obsolete data. As a result, accuracy, accountability, and compliance take the back seat.
UpKeep gives every maintenance and reliability team the tools and information they need to run operations effectively. Features like workflow automation, maintenance checklists, and automated reports help streamline processes, improve team communication, reduce equipment downtime, and enhance overall productivity.
Pricing
UpKeep offers three pricing plans. In addition, you can avail of their premium plans starting from 45 USD. For more information, you can visit their pricing page.
Parting Thoughts
So here is our list of 20 SaaS products replacing spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets.
While spreadsheet programs are versatile, organisations prefer to use solutions tailored to their business needs.
It was a pleasure spotlighting these entrepreneurs and their innovative SaaS products that are helping businesses achieve their use cases using real-time collaboration, integration with software, and automating pertinent business processes. These are some features companies sorely miss while solely working with spreadsheet programs.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and culture because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Let’s connect over a short call if you want to elevate your SaaS business’s content marketing. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Last weekend we started a new ritual in our family of four – me, my husband, my 11-year-old son, and my five-year-old daughter.
We decided to keep Saturdays as a couple’s day, where my husband and I go out and have some couple time like trying a new restaurant, watching a movie, or shopping together.
And Sundays as a parents and kids day, where we spend quality time with children like cooking or doing crafts together, going for picnics or visiting play areas, doing some house chores together or grocery shopping together, etc.
So this Saturday, while we were hungry after shopping, we discovered a restaurant named “Lagnaa” through Google Maps. The reviews and ratings were impressive, so we decided to try it. Also, it was within walking distance of our location, reducing our friction.
#1 – The Barefoot Dining
In most restaurants, we use tables and chairs for sitting and eating food with our shoes on. However, Lagnaa differentiates itself by offering a barefoot dining experience. In Lagnaa, we need to take off our shoes and sit with folded legs on a cushioned seat placed on the floor, as shown in the picture below.
When we sit with crossed folded legs, we sit in a yogic pose called Sukhasana. Sitting in this position helps in better digestion. Such a pose also sends an in-time signal to our brain when we are full, saving us from overeating.
Better digestion is a great benefit to sell when marketing the restaurant.
#2 – The Wall of Fame
If not everyone loves to be recognized, most of us do. And you get recognition when you do things that most people can’t. Heard of people saying, “Omg! She can eat such hot and spicy food!” or “Omg! He eats 3-4 green chilies with every meal.”
Lagnaa uses this rare ability to eat super or ultra-spicy food to attract more diners and create stories. Team Lagnaa has specified ten chili levels as follows:
When people win these challenges, they earn a peg on the wall of fame. A peg is a wooden clip; winners can write their names on pegs; the clips are then clamped on strings indicating the spice level from 1 to 10.
When people win these challenges, they share them with their friends in person or on social media, which brings them recognition and appreciation. The content straightaway goes into the circles of diners, spreading the word about Lagnaa to the right target audience.
Further, these challenges are a differentiated offering from Lagnaa.
#3 – The Taste
The restaurant has been a Michelin-star restaurant for six consecutive years since 2016. That’s proof of delicious food in itself.
I second that in my personal experience as well. Every dish on our table tasted great. We were able to experience the natural flavours of the ingredients. The ingredients’ quality was excellent. The food was super fresh. I loved the little bamboo boxes in which they served the rice. I had never eaten such food before.
A taste to remember; it’s also their unique differentiator.
#4 – The Creative Content and CopyWriting
Now coming to my favorite part of the restaurant. Lagnaa very thoughtfully wrote every word written on different boards across the place. Sharing some impressive elements with pictures from the restaurant:
Use of humor in writing for better recall value!
Attracting staff with delicious food (great copywriting). The element of humor continues.
Showing care for customers – A powerful message here is that instead of taking 30% of the money from customers and passing it to delivery partners, the team inspires people to pick from the restaurant at 30% discounted rates. Labour is super expensive in Singapore, after all.
Clever copywriting to sell based on quantity
#5 – The Staff
The restaurant staff effectively communicated with us. The lady who attended to us had answers to all our questions about the dishes, the food, the restaurant, etc. She also told us how they prepare combo meals at Lagnaa to include different flavours and spice levels.
Parting Thoughts
The restaurants that serve amazing food make good money. However, the restaurants that can differentiate themselves from the rest build a great brand; the money follows.
We paid ~100 SGD for the two of us at Lagnaa. But, of course, it’s comparatively on the higher side in Singapore, where you can eat a good meal for under ~10 SGD per person. But people are okay with paying for unique experiences once in a while.
A lot goes into branding. Each interaction that patrons share with your restaurant staff, to the stories you and the diners personally share. The touchpoints that make diners come back with their friends or relatives.
The founder sows the seed for branding by repeatedly sharing the core elements of what the business stands for. Content marketing helps amplify the founder’s message to benefit brand building.
By using a creative mix of marketing strategies and actionable growth hacks.
You can also get phenomenal results by using the right tactics!
With the help of this article’s 30 SaaS growth hacks, you will be able to:
Generate awareness around your SaaS product
Acquire more users for your SaaS product
Convert freemium users to paid users
Delight users and get referrals
Stay ahead in the game and learn moves from star players besides practicing your own!
#1 – Use Triangle Trick to Rank on Google
If you fix two ends of a triangle and move the third one freely, you get an infinite number of triangles.
We know, we know! You are thinking – “So?”
So, the infinite possibilities is a well-known fact; however, it holds a secret to a fantastic growth hack for scalable content creation.
Let’s learn how with an example.
Search for ‘[any company name] patents’ on Google like: ‘Apple patents’, ‘Tesla patents’, ‘Samsung patents’ – you are sure to see a result from Justia in the top 10 Google results.
Justia is a legal information portal. Monthly, hundreds of people search for patents by big companies.
Inspired by the Triangle theory, Justia fixed the word “patents” from “XYZ patents” and kept on changing XYZ to generate hundreds of web pages. Each page lists the patent-related information for one of the most searched companies on Google.
Justia updates these pages every time a new patent is issued for the particular company.
Hundreds of web pages that provide answers to user queries and are regularly updated is what you need to rank on Google.
If ‘work smart and not hard’ had a face, it would Justia.
To conclude: Fix a few keywords and change a few >> Understand searcher’s intent >> Create a template >> Publish >> Publish more.
The Google algorithm is tricky, but you can have a gentle swim if you take care of a few content parameters.
#2 – Avengers Assemble
The mission is to get ranked in top 5 products of the day on Product Hunt.
A quick introduction: Product Hunt is a community-driven website that allows SaaS founders to place their products in front of influencers and early adopters.
And you can be on the top of the “Product Hunt Feature List” on the day of your product launch, and for that, you need the help of your friends, family, colleagues, community members – the real avengers.
Hope you now find the subject line more relatable 🙂
Coming back to making a buzz on product hunt…
Right timing and community support can help you multifold your SaaS product’s visibility
Timing:
Good days – Tuesdays and Thursdays (Less competition and greater availability of people)
Good time – 12:00 noon IST (Little birdie says – That’s the time when Product Hunt clocks are reset for day’s rankings)
Community Support:
Rules are pretty simple, you need your avengers to upvote for your product within 24 hours of launch and invite others to join to do the same. (The number of upvotes we are looking at here ~500)
Also, make sure your avengers are using product hunt for quite some time before your launch. So it’s a planning of weeks if not months. Better to join communities of people active on Product Hunt.
And here is how all the efforts if in sync can bring results…
The number of upvotes and comments on Product Hunt will get more visibility for your product on Product Hunt. To rank at the top the product needs to be a hero too. Community support is just for the push to the right audience.
We are free advocates for Product Hunt (we wish we could get paid).
But the website can considerably add momentum to your product launch.
So, don’t miss out on this platform and get started today if you haven’t.
#3 – Get on the other side of the table
Podcast…
Start your podcast. Invite industry influencers.
Podcasting is a fast-growing industry.
You can connect with potential customers directly, develop authority in the industry, and ensure the prospect understands your company’s mission and vision.
Eventually, it helps you establish a unique voice for your business in the long run.
Earth’s joys and heaven’s blessings combined :). Not just that there are many more direct benefits.
Let’s do some Math here. Say you started a podcast today focusing on a core topic that makes sense for your business and will resonate with your customers. If you publish 3 episodes a week, this time next year you’d be looking at 156 episodes.
Those 156 podcast episodes could then become:
156 videos to build a YouTube channel
156 articles for SEO to help build traffic to your site
156 clips for social media to build your following
156 quotes to pull for LinkedIn or Instagram
You could turn all that content into a book
You could only invite your dream customers on the show and secretly be
building relationship starters for your sales team …
You could learn from the best episodes which content your audiences wants
and build an event around those topics
156 people and people in their networks aware of your SaaS product
And the list could go on forever.
Technology has democratized publishing, let’s make the most of it.
Don’t wait to get published vs. be the publisher.
#4 – Make it so slippery that people just slide in
A short story about frictionless SaaS tool trial.
So I keep exploring tools to level up our marketing endeavours. This time I was looking for SEO related tools. We usually use SemRush, SurferSEO, MarketMuse etc.
During my search, I discovered Ubersuggest, an SEO optimization tool, and I didn’t even realize when I got inside the tool.
They did something very smart.
You generally expect tools first to ask you for signup –and request information like email, name, role, company, company size and what not.
But Ubersuggest directly gave me a search box to do keyword analysis and showed me the result.
Without doing any signup, I was already in the tool.
Gradually, I even signed up as the tool was offering an insightful report.
You may ask–what if the person tries the tool but doesn’t sign up. There could be many reasons:
The person didn’t find what he was looking for,
The person didn’t see enough value in the tool,
Maybe the person and your product are not a right fit etc.
However, you always have an opportunity to capture the contact details of the person by offering something valuable.
So the bottom line is, can you make your experience so smooth that people fall for your tool.
#5 – I am here, I am there, I am everywhere
That’s how your SaaS product’s presence should feel.
Create listings on the major SaaS/software directories like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, and many more. We have actually observed leads coming in from G2 for our clients.
A pro tip here – optimize your listings by:
filling each and every field in your product profile,
add snapshots and demo videos,
collect reviews (incentivize if needed),
timely update the information,
and engage politely with the reviewers.
We have observed two more advantages of listing on G2 besides discovery on the platform itself:
G2 runs a lot of paid ads – this adds to discoverability of your SaaS product if it matches the query
G2 requests reviews on your behalf from genuine users in exchange of $10 Amazon voucher
Another good part is – smaller directories pull data from larger ones, which means that by creating listings on the major sites, you’ll also likely begin showing up on smaller directories automatically.
Listings are a great way to create a ripple around your SaaS on the internet.
#6 – Your customer gets $5, his friend gets $5 and you get both of them
It doesn’t matter how fantastic your product is; most people will never recommend it unless you reward them.
Some facts:
Paypal created history with $20 reward for every new user and user recommendation
DropBox saw 3900% growth in 15 months by giving 500 MB free storage each to referrer and the person referred.
Taxi giants like Grab and Uber used referrals to get more users – first user $10, every referral $10
Facts suggest that a robust referral program can help you reach potential buyers at a flashing speed.
And, if you’re not using a referral program, you’re leaving money on the table.
So, go ahead and set up your SaaS referral program.
A pro tip: Reward both the recommender and the recommended.
(Because when sellers from companies like AmWay or Oriflame try to sell you more stuff – you feel tricked. You feel they want to sell you more to enjoy rewards and incentives offered by their companies)
#7 – Create tiny bridges around your SaaS
Your customer is struggling to solve one big problem.
Can you break it down?
Can you provide solutions to smaller bits of the problem?
Can you create tiny tools as solutions?
The ones that do not require a sign-up on your SaaS tool?, but act as bridges to your SaaS product.
For instance, take HubSpot, the various tiny tools including:
Website Grader
Blog Ideas Generator
Email Signature Generator
Make My Persona
Invoice Template Generator
Here is how such tools help HubSpot:
Easy discoverability on Google
Low friction engagement from the target audience
More leads to nurture
More trials for their SaaS offerings
Brand building
So, are you ready to create these bridges for your SaaS?
#8 – Your email signature needs a pep-talk
Dear email signature,
“The rules, structures are barriers to the mind. You can be whatever you want. You are an email signature not because you are an email signature but because you were told you are an email signature. You can be more than a space for name, designation, and email id. You can be a link to the home page, a free demo, or social media. You can serve a higher purpose by being a space for an ebook, guide, informative blog, industry research, or case study. You are not just a personal email signature but a serious marketing opportunity.”
*******************
phew…I hope that motivates your email signature.
For further inspiration, here are a few examples of email signatures by HubSpot
that are much more than just signatures:
#9 – Give Recognition Get Visibility
Problem at hand – Low Budget SaaS Awareness in Target Audience for one of our clients.
Paid ads were out of question. Organic content marketing takes time – which we were already doing.
We were thinking hard – how can we put a word about SaaS in the ears of the target audience.
In the brainstorming discussion, we came up with an idea – compliments are great conversation starters.
This led our way to a ‘Recognition Campaign’ on social media.
Since the tool reciprocates with innovation, we called this campaign “InnovatorOfTheWeek”.
The channel we chose for running this campaign was LinkedIn because of the presence of innovation managers for tech companies.
Then, we short-listed companies that were demonstrating great innovation calibre via their patents and filings.
We prepared a nice write-up applauding these companies with nice visuals. And began sharing these visuals on social media by tagging respective managers from the companies.
Guess what?
The people and companies we tagged loved our post, commented, and shared it within their circle. We started getting some social shares that boosted the SaaS tool’s visibility amongst the right audience.
#10 – Leverage the new SaaS – Social as a Savior
Why is LinkedIn a gold mine for SaaS?
It’s the web of professionals – from freshers to Fortune 500 decision-makers, everyone is present on LinkedIn. There is a good chance your target SaaS users are there too.
The best part?
More often than not, they’re scrolling through actively looking for valuable content in their niche to read.
Valuable content – content that can change the way they do business.
And there you have it – The opportunity to outrank your competitors with the Content.
Easier said than done, right?
Time for actionable insights!
To be considered as the favorite voice in your niche, follow the steps below:
And once you implement the above steps, you will be on the feed of people interested in you and, after that, your SaaS.
Engaging with your audience and influencers is the major activity you will do to leverage Linkedin to its fullest potential.
Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind while commenting:
Be professional no matter what.
Do not slander, criticize, or insult other commenters
Check grammar, punctuation, spelling before submitting comments
Be sure to keep it relevant to your area of expertise
Be generous, gracious, and polite
Don’t self-promote too much
#11 – Sign-up forms need not be boring
As one of the most excellent salesman and advertisers, David Ogilvy once said,
“You know you can’t bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them into buying it.”
And it implies every step, including sign-up pages of your SaaS tool.
Why don’t you experiment with a sign-up form like Groove did when they started.
After testing a couple of approaches, they settled on a signup flow that required users to invite three friends to access their beta.
While the number of initial subscribers (non-invitees) dropped when they did this, they still got about 30% more subscribers per day after invitees responded to their friends’ posts on Facebook and Twitter.
As long as you make it easy to make the referrals, there’s a good chance you’ll see a significant net gain in signups.
Other than that, think of putting creative questions, reducing the form fields, allowing signup using their social media, etc.
But whatever you do – think of just one thing.
“Are you going to bore your visitor, or make them find it entertaining”?
#12 – Contests that are no less than Squid Game
Just kidding 🙂 Squid Games would be extreme.
Do you remember when you were a kid, you studied hard against your wish just because your parents promised a picnic if you got good marks?
Well, adults are no different.
Rewards are a great motivator, and a rewarding contest can be a great way to boost visibility for your SaaS product.
The contests could be as simple as
captioning a photo,
commenting,
completing a survey,
referring a friend,
or sharing a selfie with your campaign theme.
The giveaways can be discount coupons, beta access, free trials, social shoutouts, etc.
Here is a great example of how Gong.io conducted a contest on LinkedIn and achieved phenomenal results.
In 2019, sales conversation intelligence platform Gong.io embraced the spirit of holiday giving through a contest that featured popular sales books as prizes.
The objective of the giveaway contest:
Gain LinkedIn followers
Create brand awareness
Strategy:
– Gong.io’s employees created a short video around sales-related books, and in the video, they talked about how these books will benefit people working in sales.
– They offered these books for free to their audience.
– The only rule was the audience had to comment with a one-word response in the video posts to certain easy and interesting prompts.
– The comments helped with the engagement of the posts
– Eventually, the LinkedIn algorithm did wonders, and these videos started receiving massive traction
Amazing Results:
Within 30 days of launching the giveaway, Gong saw –
– 85% relative increase in LinkedIn Page follower growth
– 194% increase in likes
– 108% increase in shares
– 6,893% increase in comments
Social media contests, if used correctly, can help to grow your email list, trial signups, followers, engagement, and yes, even increase sales.
#13: Use Hello Bar to Know Who Visited Your website
You just created a lucrative offer around your SaaS – “Say, a lifetime subscription for 100 USD only on Black Friday”. And, you know people visiting your site will definitely go for it.
Or, say you came up with a valuable piece of content – a guide, template, or ebook. There is a good chance your website visitors would be interested in it.
You can use a pop-up window, but some people find these pop-ups very annoying.
Solution: Go for the hello bar instead
What the heck is a hello bar –
A hello bar, also known as a floating bar or banner bar, is a bar that sits on the top or bottom of your website, often below the main navigation bar.
The idea here is to make sure that the website visitor shares their contact information in return for something valuable.
A pro tip: Add it to your calendar to run sales offers on expected days of the year like Black Friday, Singles Day (11:11), etc.
For the rest of the days, use this prime property on your website to offer some valuable content.
#14: Make your free users as secret influencers
Quick fact –
You know you aren’t the only one talking to your target audience.
Other than your competitors, your existing free users communicate with a whole lot of people through their emails, their SaaS tools, website popups, chatbots, social posts, etc.
And some of these people with whom your current users are communicating can be a good fit for your product.
So why not use this opportunity by being a part of their communication.
Let me show you some of my observations:
I received an email in the morning. And at the end of the email, I saw this Message:
And I was curious to check what Superhuman is. So I checked it, and bang on!
I learned that Superhuman is an email client.
Did Superhuman advertise me directly?
No!
Indirectly, yes, very much, and with social proof, someone in my inbox is using this tool.
Here are a few more examples:
The hack is not rocket science, but it can bring you some fantastic results if used correctly.
So, the moral of the story: Bring branding elements on the free versions of your product.
Wishing you more reach and leads!
#15: Earn Echos of Your SaaS Product on Twitter
Most of your users will love it if you have a good SaaS product.
But not everyone will tell others about your SaaS product unless you make it easier for them to do so.
And this brings us to our today’s hack.
“Make it easier for your visitors to talk about your product on social media.”
Imagine your user wants to share how good your product is; here are the steps
they have to take:
Write a post
Find your handle
Finding an image maybe
But most importantly, a push to share on social
What if you can reduce all the steps and get some free social shares and shoutouts.
Here are a couple of examples:
Twitter Gems
‘Twittr Gems’, a repository of popular Twitter threads, makes it effortless for its evangelists to give ‘Twittr Gems’ a shoutout on Twitter. All its users need to do is click on a button. A pre-composed tweet will appear with the SaaS product page link and Twitter handle. The user may choose to modify the tweet or share it as is.
This brings visibility for the product from the user’s circle.
Buy Me a Coffee
‘Buy me a coffee’ does something similar where it offers new users to share their profile on Twitter.
How can you do the same?
There is a tool called ‘clicktotweet’ that can help you with this hack.
#16: Outrank your competitors with this brilliant hack – Get Found!
Unless your SaaS belongs to an entirely new category, you can easily capture your target user’s attention by writing SaaS listicles.
Most of the time, people with a buying intent will be searching for things like “Top [your SaaS category] software” or “5 alternatives to [an expensive SaaS tool in your category].
What you need to do is pack all the information about various tools in your listicles like – functionality, USP, features, pros, and cons, reviews, etc.
So, when the target user is exploring various SaaS tools in your category on Google, they land on your article. They get to know about your SaaS. How it can benefit them. Based on their liking, they may choose to explore further.
Here is how we helped our client to get quality leads by targeting prospects with buying intent and publishing listicles –
We figured out our client’s prospects search for “financial investigative software,” “financial investigative software 2021”, so we produced a listicle around it.
And, the listicle ranks on the first page of Google USA
So the bottom line is – make it easy for your users to explore SaaS tools in your niche. And, you can immensely benefit from this good karma.
Here are a few topic suggestions to begin with:
Top 5 differences between [Your SaaS] v. [Your Competitors]
Top 5 alternatives of [Your Most Popular Competitor SaaS]
Top 15 [ SaaS Category ] 2022 to Excel at [ A pain point ]
We hope you find the hack helpful, and we wish you more success with it.
#17: Wait… Don’t go!
Just as you are about to leave your house, and you hear –
“Your favorite cookies are here”, chances are you will stop for a few seconds to look at them.
And that’s how your visitors should feel when they are about to leave your website.
So the hack is –
Re-engage visitors just when they are about to abandon your website and convince them to stick around a bit longer with a targeted, valuable offer.
This offer could include an eBook, whitepaper, coupon, newsletter, blog subscription, free trial, or just about anything else.
A word of caution here – While this is an opportunity for you, it can quickly appear spammy or jeopardize a brand’s reputation if done incorrectly.
Therefore, it’s essential to consider the visitor and their experience when implementing an exit popup on your site and then customize the popups.
To do so, track the information visitors consumed before seeing this popup. You might have to play around with advanced features of CRM like HubSpot and WordPress to track the time and movement of visitors around the site.
You may then want to implement a specific popup based on the page the user is abandoning.
For example, if a visitor has spent time on your products and pricing page, you may want to offer them a coupon or free trial within your popup on that page.
Also, give visitors a choice.
And don’t try to trick by making it hard for the visitors to find the exit button.
Here is an example of an exit-intent popup from kissmetrics.
Notice the color contrast of their “yes” and “no” buttons. The “yes” button stands out while the grey “no” button is clearly visible but less appealing.
#18: I asked for Mango, and I got Orange. Nonetheless, both are fruits
You and your competitors are probably paying for Google Ads to appear for the same most searched keywords.
It’s expensive to appear for each possible search term to outrank the competitors.
However, even with a limited budget, you can maximize the returns on Ad spend by choosing the keywords wisely.
Go head-on!
Directly use a competitor’s brand name as a keyword.
I.e. “Be found when your target buyer is searching for your competitor”
[T&C – The competitor needs to be the popular one.]
Wait..Don’t step back…
Yes…it is legal to bid on competitor keywords.
Google has no rules against ads shown for a competitor brand.
Check out this example:
‘Shortcut’ – a project management tool that’s specifically designed for software development teams, appears in Ad when you search for ‘Trello’. Trello is one of the most searched project management and team collaboration tools. So here, ‘Trello’ is the Mango and ‘Shortcut’ is the orange. 🙂
Spending on Google Ads to rank on a competitor brand name can be a great growth hack.
However, for full-fledged growth of your SaaS, you need a combination of ads, blogs, guest posts, and more.
#19: That ‘Aha!’😍 Moment💲
When a user steps into a SaaS product, they have two concerns:
What does the platform do?
The answer to this question is what brings about that ‘Aha!’ moment.😊😍
How can the platform help them achieve what they want to do?
If the answer to this question is positive, the user is one step closer to activation (a free user ready to become a paid user). 😊😍
Let’s put this into context:
You might have heard about Canva.
In case not, Canva is a super-easy-to-use design platform, even for non-designers, that has reached 1.5 million paid subscribers to date and is growing.
How did they achieve it?
Let’s map how Canva users got their ‘Aha! moment’ and became paid users.
What does the Canva do?
Canva helps users create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other visual content very easily even if they are not pro designers.
And most of these fantastic features are for free.
This brings the “Aha!” moment.😊😍
How Canva converts free users into paid users?
Canva is a lifeline for Social media managers.
And to excel in their work and save time, social media managers need features like:
Media resizers that can change the format for the same content to fit on
different social media platforms
High-quality visuals
Visually catching templates
Brand-specific fonts and color palette
Automatic scheduler
Spoken presentations and videos
And whenever the user tries to accomplish any of the above things on the platform, Canva triggers them to become paid users. All such premium features are marked with a crown, something like this:
And the above triggers act as an activation moment, where social media managers understand the value of Canva.
And these in-app triggers have been a hack for the growth of Canva.
So the conclusion is – Find what will give your free users an “aha” moment so that they explore further, and then put the triggers to become pro at the places where it hits them the most.
#20: Don’t make them wait…
As a child, I loved going to my maternal grandparents.
Although the trip to their place was long and exhausting, I had fun simply because of all the coloring books and activities my Mom had prepared for the journey for myself and my sisters.
Like any wise mother, she knew that she had to keep us occupied to keep us from driving her crazy.
But, if “times flies when you’re having fun,” then the opposite of that is also true.
And this brings to the reason I am writing this email.
We hate to wait.
And when you have a user who had already onboarded your SaaS platform, and
he is onto achieving tasks like:
Uploading a video
Sending a file
Rendering
Assembling multiple tasks
Or any other tasks where speed is a must, the user won’t have a happy experience waiting.
And in the era of competition, users won’t take a second to look for other options after this frustrating experience.
Best Possible solution?
Ideally, there should not be a delay from the tool’s side. But that is ideal.
Next best solution?
Think like my mother…
Find ways to keep users engaged and stick to your product while they wait.
This could be offering users to read a few interesting facts, telling them what’s going in the background, showing them memes, playing a song, etc.
Just ensure they don’t get frustrated with the wait time.
Here is an example from a tool, IP Toolworks, an effective tool for patent attorneys, showcasing interesting insights while the user uploads the file:
We hope your users love your tool and spend more time with it through the above hack.
#21: Don’t ask for too much!
Humans are lazy and need strong motivation to take any action.
And as Newton told us, we like to stay in the state we are in.
So, if we are scrolling through LinkedIn, we just want to stay on LinkedIn for a while.
We don’t want to switch from our usual scroll on LinkedIn to go on a different website.
On top of that, if that different website is going to ask us to type in something, our brain and fingers show high resistance.
However, when you are running a LinkedIn ad campaign, you need the targeted audience to take some action – like filling out a form to request a demo.
So, how can you win against the laws of nature here?
You can’t, it’s better to go with nature – use LinkedIn forms that don’t require users to leave LinkedIn and are auto-filled by LinkedIn. After all, LinkedIn knows a lot about you – name, email, etc.
When a user clicks on a LinkedIn ad, an auto-filled appears as shown below:
You see, you got the information without giving much trouble to your audience.
Moreover, users might trust LinkedIn moreover your website with their data.
A pro tip here: Offer a solution to your target user’s pressing pain point in your LinkedIn ad campaign; the chances are much higher they would click on it.
#22: Right Message Changes Fortune
Storytime…
A blind man sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.
He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.”
There were only a few coins in the hat 🙁
A woman was walking by. She took a few coins from her pocket and dropped them into the hat.
She then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.
She put the new sign back so that everyone who walked by would be able to see.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind man 🙂
Wondering what did the woman write?
Here is what she tweaked to the board:
“It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.”
Did she change the truth of the previous message on board?
No.
She said the same but in a different way.
Both signs told people that the man was blind.
The first sign simply said the man was blind.
The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind, which did wonders for the blind man.
And that’s what powerful messaging can do.
But, how can you bring out that core message that shows how your tool brings value to your target users?
To start with, here is a value proposition template that will do the work for you.
We hope the template helps you figure out your value proposition.
Here is how we have defined our value proposition:
We created Concurate, so that you don’t have to go chasing the customers.
#23: Who does not like to be a part of a VIP club?
Superhuman, an email app that charges just 30$/month, is now valued at $825 million despite never formally launching its email app.
Whattt…? Howw…?
We also wondered …#?!#@
And after digging deeper we found the secret to Superhuman’s immense popularity.
It’s EXCLUSIVITY.
You won’t find the Superhuman app in the App Store.
If you want to use or try superhuman you need to request an existing user for a recommendation to skip the queue.
And, that’s not it.
Even if you cut the line, you are subject to a 4-step onboarding process, where you can be denied access if they don’t meet the right qualifications.
And once you are finally on board, you would feel your email experience as playing a video game.
That’s how good the product is!
So, here is what you need:
Heroic Product + Ability to create FOMO
If the product is a hero, the users would brag about it!
For example, superhuman got exceptional reviews from big shots like the CEO of Crunchbase and head of brand at Notion.
And, when this bragging comes from influential people – the crowd gets anxious about trying your product – no one wants to be left out.
Hope you liked the hack!
#24: More PDFs mean more email addresses
This happens often.
Some visitors on your website may have found your blog exciting but are running out of time, and they leave the site.
And there, you lost an opportunity to convert a curious visitor to a subscriber.
Solution?
How about converting your blog posts as a PDF (bonus content) and suggesting visitors get it directly to their inbox?
It’s the easiest and one of the most effective ways to get the email addresses of people visiting your website.
The blog articles you wrote already are your work subjects, which means that you do not have to shed more blood, sweat, and tears to create new content. Instead, simply take your best articles or latest blog posts and convert them to PDF.
We did use this strategy for one of our clients, and we were able to get 27% more email subscribers.
Bonus Tip:
Upload your PDF to a few different places online, such as Scribd, Slideshare, and social media platforms other than your site.
Hope you liked the hack!
#25: Who doesn’t love a good bargain? Timing matters
Your marketing team worked hard to bring users to the pricing page.
Mind you – a visitor on your pricing page often has a buying intent.
But without taking any action, he/she may leave the page.
There could be n reasons for them to leave the page, but you lost an opportunity to gather contact information about a probable customer.
Most importantly, with such high competition around, the visitor might have been persuaded by your competitor after leaving your site.
Won’t it be great if you could capture lead information on the pricing page?
Well, here is your simple hack to handle it.
Put a discount coupon pop-up, where visitors need to sign-up to avail of the discount.
*T&C – Discount code available only via email*
Yes yes… we get you… you have a genuine concern… not all visitors will avail the offer at the moment. However, there is a good probability they would want to save the discount code in their email for future use.
For instance, here is how I was convinced to sign-up for the discount code.
We were looking for a PR partner agency for one of our client’s campaigns, but we only submitted our details to this particular agency. All thanks to this one pop-up:
We were looking for something that fits our budget, and who doesn’t love a good bargain?
We hope this hack helps you get the email addresses of serious buyers.
#26: Your SaaS website needs a Hero
Did you know there is a salesperson in your team that works 24×7?
Did you start wondering and taking on wild guesses?
Let me help.
It’s your website.
The website developers often tick headlines, features, benefits, social proof, Calls-to-Action, and resources on the homepage to ensure that your 24×7 salesperson doesn’t lack competency.
But they miss out on adding a significantly lesser-known yet deciding element to
the site.
A Hero Image.
A hero image is a large banner image or illustration at the top of the home page. It serves as a user’s first glimpse of your company’s USP because of its prominent placement on the website.
But why do you need a Hero Image?
People are more receptive to “show” than “tell”.
A hero image can be an excellent way to highlight the USP. It can also help you establish a connection with the website visitor.
And why would you want to miss out on giving a positive first impression to your
website visitors?
A Pro Tip: Provide Hero Image about what the headline offers to help users buy into the concept.
Here is an excellent example of it:
Including a hero header in your website can be a great way to catch the user’s attention as soon as they land on your website.
We hope you engage better with your website visitors using this hack.
#27: A win-win deal!
Everything is ready.
A new product, new features, and new market.
All you need is to create a buzz around your SaaS and some quick wins and reviews to grow faster.
And here’s how you can do it –
How about finding someone who might need your product and is a famous blogger also within your niche?
Offering a free premium account to them in exchange for a genuine review with their audience can be your key to the buzz!
Famous bloggers can be just as influential as press coverage – and their audiences represent an untapped resource of potential users.
And if they share the review with their audience, it will likely be a funnel of a whole ton of new traffic towards your product.
#28: Beat them at their game
Fact…
Google shows those web pages in top results that are recommended by many other authoritative websites
Which means – the content is good and others have recommended it for it’s goodness!
This leads to the fact that…
Only great content is not enough.
After all, Google senses your content from both eyes and ears!
Here’s how you need to do:
Pick a topic around which your SaaS solves a problem.
Search on Google to find top results around that topic.
Find out which websites have linked to those top results.
Prepare an article that’s
Longer
More recent
More engaging
Backed up with data
Visually compelling
Go to the authors of websites that have links for the top articles. Request them to link to your article instead of the top pages you aim to beat. You may need to negotiate in different ways to make this happen.
Soon, you would find your piece of content in top results. And, top results on Google don’t go unnoticed. Thus bringing your content piece and SaaS product more visibility.
#29: It takes two to tango
We all make new year resolutions, and being productive is one on the top.
But we are immediately confronted with dozens of tool choices that can help us stay productive.
On top of mere analysis paralysis, there are certain considerations that we need to take into account, such as
cost,
compatibility with other products,
feature functionality, etc.
and it requires a tremendous amount of research, hair-pulling, and ultimately decision making.
Here is a smart tactic that Pocket (a social bookmarking service) did to help productivity enthusiasts.
In 2015, Pocket teamed up with Evernote, Wunderlist, and LastPass to bring The Productivity Pack along with a bonus gift from The New York Times.
The productivity pack had everything needed for someone to stay productive.
The best part of the bundle was $185 worth of one-year subscriptions to each of these premium services for just $59.99.
And it was a great success for them.
This brings us to a new hack – Creating SaaS bundles for your audience that get their job done.
By partnering with related (but not competitive businesses), you can attract masses of targeted traffic to your business.
Bundle packages in the SaaS marketplace is a cost-effective and profitable business model.
We hope you make great collaborations and get more users with this hack.
#30: 2x your growth with an extra eye and ears
GetCraft, a marketplace for content, PR, and design talent, often ran into the following problem.
Their user would sign-up, and then – trip themselves up while filling in the product – and either write to support for help or never come back.
With limited development resources (we all know how hard it is to hire good developers…), GetCraft found themselves struggling to track their users’ behavior and locate where most of the drop-offs happen in the onboarding.
Solution?
GetCraft used a tool called Userpilot to collect details about how the users were interacting with GetCraft. With the tool’s help, they tracked their users’ behavior and realized most users struggled with creating and completing their profiles.
The next step was to fix the onboarding process.
Result? The User activation rate doubled.
Game changing – Isn’t it?
So, this was the 30th hack!
We hope you get more users for your SaaS product with these hacks!
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If you also want to grow your B2B SaaS business and get more leads and users, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Recently, an article detailing how Rippling raised $250 million with Loom videos caught my attention.
It’s fascinating how Loom is replacing old ways of business communication. Loom, Zoom, Room is a thing.
One of the reasons for Loom’s success is, of course, its intuitiveness, user-centricity, and effectiveness.
Personal story time.
My introduction to Loom happened when our Sales Head shared a few Loom videos. Those videos looked nice, so I decided to give Loom a try.
It was love at first sight (or first use). Switching to Loom immediately solved my issue with the QuickTime Player on iMac: I no longer needed to append voice recordings separately. That was the “aha moment.”
Fast forward a few weeks, I was selected for Facebook’s billion-dollar creator funding program. I used Loom to create at least 3 minutes long 90 videos covering inspirational sales and marketing stories across the globe.
And one of the videos went missing.
What followed next amazed me. Not only did my problem get resolved, but I also received multiple emails from the Loom team that showed they care about my issue personally.
Such a user-first mindset combined with an excellent yet simple product and effective marketing won Loom 14 million users worldwide. And Loom’s journey from the verge of bankruptcy to a $1.5 billion valuation can offer many lessons.
This article will distill those lessons by analysing Loom’s growth from a B2B SaaS perspective.
Loom’s Story: A SaaS Fairytale
Loom’s story is no less than a fairytale full of struggle, adventure, and moments of pure bliss.
In 2016, Vinay Hiremath, Joe Thomas, and Shahed Khan – a band of three brave entrepreneurs sailed the troubled waters of the SaaS market, intending to change business communications with asynchronous videos.
However, things didn’t go well despite their best efforts. After several failed launches and fundraising attempts, they struggled to keep the lights on. Their last hope rested on the launch on Product Hunt.
It took a miracle to save the brand from closing its door. The brand received more sign-ups on the day of its Product Hunt launch than it did in the past six months combined.
That miracle gave the brand the breathing room it needed. After that, Loom steadily continued its climb to the top while battling against a tough economy and cutthroat competition.
Currently, the company ($1.5 billion in valuation) serves over 200,000 businesses and 14 million users. Even after the CoVID-19 pandemic, millions of new users signed up, and Loom opened two new offices.
During this eventful journey, Loom indeed faced and successfully dealt with almost every possible challenge a SaaS startup can expect. So that alone makes Loom a great example to learn from.
Four Pillars That Support Loom’s Upward Growth
Before we move on, please note that any brand cannot attribute its success to only a handful of different factors. Usually, these factors mutually influence each other, and the lines often get blurred. Hence figuring out the exact extent of any factor’s impact is complex.
With that in mind, let’s break down four factors behind Loom’s success from a B2B marketer’s perspective.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
#1 – User-Focused Approach and Crystal Clear Understanding of Target Personas
Folks at Loom figured early that their most formidable competitors are most commonly used communication tools such as email, messenger apps, text messages, etc.
Of course, none of these tools allows a user to record an explanatory video in seconds, send it with his report, or record a screen capture video and add a human element to dry business communications otherwise.
But very few users understood how asynchronous videos fit in their lives. They were more familiar with text-based/synchronous video (e.g., Zoom) communication. Changing this status quo was hard.
That’s why Loom (then Openvid) team focused on understanding the users first. This user-focused approach is one of the reasons behind Loom’s wild success on both Product Hunt and later as a brand itself. Shahed Khan later revealed they tracked everything: how people were using zoom, when they stopped using it and why.
Their goal was to plan their product features and marketing around user feedback.
Before the launch, the founder team tweaked their product based on every little insight they got from user inputs.
After the early growth spike, Loom doubled its effort to understand the customers. First, the brand identified seven personas. Then team members requested their users for a 10-minute call to understand their use-cases.
For many SaaS brands, one of the biggest struggles is convincing the users to replace existing solutions with the brand’s product. The hyper-user-centric approach solved it for Loom.
Screen recording with Loom is intuitive (the credit goes to Loom’s extensive user research) and easy to start. Both ease-of-use and a carefully designed referral program compel the user to try the app. Vinay refers to this moment of user adaptation as the “aha moment.” If you haven’t already, you must try the Loom app to see how intuitive it is!
After a while, users realise how versatile asynchronous videos are, which have a place in daily business communication. This versatility is the moment (which Vinay calls “Habit moment“) when “testers” actually became paid customers. To help users to arrive at this “Habit moment,” the marketing team put more tailored use-cases, blog posts, and help articles based on users’ profiles.
If you go through the brand’s blog, you will see the blog posts cover use-cases across different segments. And, of course, the audience-content fit is on the point here. (We will cover their blog content strategy later in this article.)
#2 – Product-Led-Approach As A Go-to-Market Strategy
People in SaaS circles hold the product-led approach in high regard.
But in reality, the product-led approach is hard to implement. After all, it is not child’s play to understand your user inside out, prioritise the end-user while building the product and deliver value before you start profiting.
SaaS brands that wish to adopt a product-led-growth approach as their go-to-market strategy can learn a thing or two from Loom.
Essentially every component of Loom’s marketing and strategy is tied to the product itself.
The basic technology the brand offers isn’t new. There are multiple tools available in marketing that allow screen recording. However, Loom’s simplicity, performance, and user experience set it apart.
For example, once the user installs its Chrome extension, it won’t even take 5 mins to understand how to record their screen or edit those videos. Also, the recorded videos get uploaded to the server on the go. So even during editing, merging, or reviewing the transcript, there is no drop in performance. And Loom continuously works on improving the user experience.
Such a seamless user experience makes it easier for users to try and continue using Loom. They use it to send any report, thank you note, message to their colleagues, and whatnot. And the more they use it, the faster Loom videos become one of the “must-haves.”
Loom takes user experience inspiration from other brands. For example, every time someone views your Loom videos, you get a notification. This feature mimics one of the distinguishing features of Linkedin – “Someone has viewed your profile”. The numbers revealed this LinkedIn-inspired feature is popular amongst Loom users too.
The product-led- growth strategy also influenced the early adaption. From the beginning, Loom made it extremely easy to share videos and sign-up. In addition, since Loom supports the workspace model (like Slack), the moment a team member shares a Loom video, others start using it too, which accelerates Loom’s adoption inside an organisation. HubSpot is one of such enterprises that became one of the early enterprise adopters.
Loom’s team members also use asynchronous videos for outreach or building connections. It makes the recipients more like to give the videos a try as they can see the product in action.
This product-led-growth approach helped Loom build a brand. Interestingly enough, Loom uses this to gain massive SEO advantages.
P.S: Let’s cover that in the following section.
#3 – An SEO Moat For Sustainable Organic Growth
Can you guess how much traffic the Loom website receives every month?
According to Similarweb, It’s over 13 million.
And two most prominent sources of Loom’s traffic are direct traffic (9.6 million) and organic search (1.9 million).
These numbers show how influential the brand is (hence, people directly visit by typing the URL or clicking on bookmarks). And, of course, their SEO strategy is worth learning from.
Most SaaS brands approach SEO by targeting some top of the funnel/middle of the funnel keywords based on what problem they solve for their target audience. This approach, indeed, has some merits.
However, Loom’s approach to SEO is entirely different. Instead of mindlessly chasing after some top-of-the-funnel keywords and burning cash, it chose to excel at brand query SEO. As a result, for any search term that involves Loom as a product/company, Loom’s content ranks at the top.
Here is an example of the keyword “Loom not working” (1080 monthly hits):
Keywords that drive most of Loom’s monthly traffic are also mostly branded. However, with that said, Loom’s SEO team doesn’t neglect non-branded relevant long-tail keywords either.
You must be wondering why branded query SEO works excellently for Loom.
Well, this success has its root in Loom’s brand building and positioning. Its users mostly came to know about the app after receiving a Loom video or hearing about it from others. So, it created a powerful brand which resulted in further brand awareness. So people started looking online to understand different usages of the app, troubleshoot, and receive new product updates. So, Loom secured SEO wins by optimising its user guides/blogs/landing pages for those search terms.
Interestingly, Loom’s obsession (which is good) with understanding their audience is also reflected in their SEO strategies. On close inspection, Loom’s SEO team invests in “pain-point SEO.”
If you are unfamiliar with the term, it’s an SEO approach that advocates taking into account your users’ real challenges first and doing keyword research based on users’ issues, not search volume.
Loom does not stop at providing a solution for common issues. Instead, its content team finds more profound and complex user challenges and creates content.
Loom’s blog posts, for instance, rank for long-tail keywords like “hate my voice.” It might feel entirely out of context at first. However, many people are insecure about their voice, making them video shy. Loom helps readers and gains exposure to a new audience by targeting such keywords.
Last but not least, Loom pays attention to its link profile. According to Ahref’s report, Loom has almost 2.5 million backlinks (you get a backlink when other websites link to your articles in their blog posts) from 44000 referring domains (list of websites that have linked them). In addition, highly authoritative websites like HubSpot and Forbes also link back to Loom.
#4 – Product-Led/Thought Leadership Content that Educates Customers and Promotes the Product
Loom introduced asynchronous videos as a new way of business communications and, in the process, challenged the dominance of asynchronous video communication and sync text communication. So educating users about the usage of asynchronous videos was (and still is) Loom’s priority.
That’s why Loom’s content always has been top-notch. Its entire content strategy revolves around product-led content and occasional thought leadership content.
But first, let’s talk about unsung heroes: “help articles”. As we discussed, brand query search terms are responsible for a big chunk of Loom’s monthly traffic. As a result, the Loom resource library houses hundreds of “help articles” to answer almost any queries made up with those branded search terms.
These help articles are packed with information and includes relevant screenshots and video. Such high-quality and well-planned content pieces ensure user satisfaction and a positive impact on overall SEO.
Only a few SaaS brands produce great product-led content as Loom. (Ahrefs and Hotjar are another two examples if you are wondering). The cornerstone of its content strategy is product-led content which is not surprising considering the brand’s overall commitment to product-led growth.
Almost every blog post picks one specific issue and weaves the product into the narrative while offering the solution. Here is an example from the blog post “How video messages help us explain and review code“.
This embedded Loom video demonstrates how an engineer can review code using an asynchronous video and eliminate a lot of needless back and forth between the coder and reviewer. As you can see, including the product (that above mentioned Loom video) feels natural in this context.
Interestingly, Loom doesn’t always treat its audience as a bunch of people divided based on their use cases. Sometimes a few blog posts go live talking about the discomfort the users might feel while shooting videos.
But no matter what problem the blog post provides a solution for, the product-led part is always executed flawlessly.
Thought leadership content has become another staple of the entire content strategy.
As you know by now, Loom essentially carves out a market with a product that challenges the existing status quo. To do so, the brand has to persuade, educate and provide new perspectives to its users. As a result, the brand invested in quality product-led content with elements of thought leadership.
Take this blog post, for example. It matches the description of good thought leadership content:
It offers a new perspective (adaptation of asynchronous communication).
The argument is well thought out and based on facts.
It has a strong, compelling message that makes the reader reconsider these new ways of communication.
At the same time, Loom’s use cases fit pretty well into the narrative. As a result, these hybrid blog posts both educate and sell at the same time.
A further intriguing aspect of Loom’s blog strategy is how it approaches bottom-of-the-funnel content. For example, many SaaS brands consider bottom-of-the-funnel case studies with many numbers and stats.
However, in many cases, the impact of a product is not easy to measure in numbers. In those situations, storytelling is a great way to send your message across.
Instead of writing those customer success stories in-house, Loom invites its customers to narrate the impact in their own words as guest post contributors. This practice is superior for two reasons:
First, these bottom-of-the-funnel articles rank for relevant keywords.
More importantly, a success story from the actual customer is much more persuasive than something written by the brand.
(P.S: If you want to create or scale thought leadership/product-led content, we can help you with planning, draft creation and promotion. Book a call here.)
Key Takeaways
The biggest takeaway of Loom’s story is prioritising your users is the best approach.
Loom didn’t go for rapid sales growth. Instead, they made sure the product was as user-friendly as it gets. As a result, early users found it very convenient and shared it with their peers.
It, in turn, presented an SEO opportunity that Loom leveraged effectively.
Also, content played a significant role in Loom’s success.
Most of its blog posts focus on educating and providing solutions to users’ questions. Often Loom’s product fits in these solutions pretty well, so the product-led-content approach works well for the brand. Loom also publishes a lot of top-of-the-funnel content and gradually builds up authority. It’s a well-thought decision, considering the Google algorithm now emphasises E.A.T. (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness)
We hope this piece provides you with actionable insights from the story of Loom to create meaningful content for your customers.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information. If your organisation wants thoughtful content brainstormed and designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
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Hiring the wrong people is the fastest way to undermine a sustainable business.
Kevin J. Donaldson
Hiring the right partner is vital to making your content marketing strategy successful. A SaaS content marketing agency will help elevate your business by understanding its fundamentals and assisting you in achieving your goals.
The process of hiring a SaaS content marketing agency can be time-consuming. But, a clear understanding of the critical questions you should ask during the screening process will help ensure that your recruitment efforts don’t waste vetting the wrong options.
Let’s go through a comprehensive list of twenty essential questions you should ask before choosing a SaaS content marketing agency and ensure your enterprise’s processes fit in perfectly with the agency’s established systems.
1. In What Format of Content Marketing Do They Specialise?
2. In Which Industries Do They Specialise?
3. What Kind of Clients Works Well With Their Business Model?
4. Which Stages of the Buyer Funnel Will They Target?
5. How Will They Help Your Business?
6. Can They Create Materials Like eBooks, Website Copy, and Landing Pages?
7. What Metrics Will They Use To Measure Success?
8. Will They Provide Unique or Standardised Solutions To Your Business?
9. Are They A Partner Or Provider?
10. How Will The Project Be Handled?
11. How Frequently Will They Communicate?
12. What Do They Require From Your End?
13. Can They Share Case Studies?
14. Can They Provide Testimonials?
15. What Industries And Topics Are Their Writers Familiar With Curating?
16. Which Tools Will Their Team Use?
17. Will They Provide Access To Marketing Automation Software?
18. Are They Comfortable With Your Brand And Culture?
19. What Will Be The Cost?
20. Is The Contract Flexible?
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
1. In What Format of Content Marketing Do They Specialise?
Some agencies specialise in one area of content marketing or have a team that covers many. So ensure you’re in the clear. For example, some agencies provide full-scale end-to-end marketing services like Grow and Convert and Concurate, while some specialise in link building like Heroic Search. Alternatively, you may need an agency to market your SaaS enterprise on social media; that’s where content marketing agencies like Siarza Social Digital come into the picture.
2. In Which Industries Do They Specialise?
It makes sense to approach the relevant SaaS content marketing agencies that have prior exposure to the industry in which your business operates. Having this background means that the agency will be well immersed in the best practices and have a clear understanding of your competitors, the pain points of your target audience and the required steps to help you grow and scale your business.
3. What Kind of Clients Works Well With Their Business Model?
The different stages of T2D3 growth for B2B SaaS businesses are $1M to $10M ARR, $10M to $100M ARR, or $100M+ ARR. For example, Concurate works with medium-sized B2B SaaS businesses. Collaborate with content marketing agencies – bespoke or boutique – that are more attuned to the growth stage your business is experiencing.
4. Which Stages of the Buyer Funnel Will They Target?
Each business will have its priorities. For example, one firm might want to inform its target audience, while another might have commercial intents. This clarity will require hashing out the agreement on how the content marketing will either make your target audience aware of your product or interested in trying it out, make your business desirable, or make a purchase decision.
5. How Will They Help Your Business?
Be clear about what the content marketing agency aims to achieve, whether bringing in more marketing-qualified leads (MQL) or sales-qualified leads (SQL). Or, your business might be looking to secure more signups and sales. But, again, there should be absolute clarity on the results.
6. Can They Create Materials Like eBooks, Website Copy, and Landing Pages?
Emergencies are precisely that – emergencies. Your agreement may require receiving content pieces like blogs, case studies, and allied materials. Ask if the content marketing agency can provide you with additional services like creating lead magnets in the form of eBooks or developing your landing pages, website copies, and more.
7. What Metrics Will They Use To Measure Success?
Run away if you hear about some vanity metrics. Instead, ask how the content marketing agency will keep track of and report on results. You’d like to see the progress since the start of your agreement, and it will be crucial to measure the performance against established indicators.
8. Will They Provide Unique or Standardised Solutions To Your Business?
In other words, do they provide unique or cookie-cutter strategies? Every business has individual needs, and formulating a content marketing plan should not rely on a templated approach. In a perfect scenario, an agency would build all of its client strategies from the ground up and design them per the account’s goals and objectives.
9. Are They A Partner Or Provider?
Be on the lookout for content marketing agencies that are comfortable with either assisting your in-house marketing or even acting as their extension. It should be the agency’s objective to not just focus on the minutiae but also help you focus on scaling your business, keeping customers happy, and more.
10. How Will The Project Be Handled?
Inquire whether you will get a dedicated point-of-contact. The answer should be a resounding yes! Agencies need to provide a human touch, and an account manager will do that. Another pertinent point is to ask for a dedicated secondary or “backup” point-of-contact with extensive account knowledge.
11. How Frequently Will They Communicate?
Routine and free-flowing communication is vital to the success of any plan. So while outsourcing may have its caveats, a barrier to communication shouldn’t be one of them. Make sure that you block calendars to get regular and timely updates on the health of your content marketing campaigns.
12. What Do They Require From Your End?
Establish expectations on what the content agency will be expecting from your team to hit the results that they’ve promised. For example, how much would you like to be involved in the process? What reviews and approvals do you need to give regarding the content creation? Maintain clarity to avoid difficult conversations in the future.
13. Can They Share Case Studies?
The proof is in the pudding. If the agency can share similar results to those you expect, that is a great indicator and will give you loads of confidence. Spend time digging into the case studies they have presented on their website. For example, Concurate has published its own B2B client success story.
14. Can They Provide Testimonials?
Testimonials speak a lot about an agency. If a client is confident enough to put their name on a review of the agency’s work, that speaks volumes of its credibility.
15. What Industries And Topics Are Their Writers Familiar With Curating?
Agencies typically also hire freelance writers as part of their staff. Again, it helps to inquire about their team’s familiarity with the topics and the content pieces you’re looking to get published.
16. Which Tools Will Their Team Use?
Content creation requires using industry-standard tools like Grammarly, Canva, HubSpot, SEMrush, Google Analytics and more to help elevate and bring life to content pieces. Ask what tools the team at the agency is comfortable with and will be using to bring your ideas to life.
17. Will They Provide Access To Marketing Automation Software?
Marketing automation software dramatically simplifies and streamlines your marketing efforts. Whether Buffer for publishing content on different platforms or using HubSpot to manage leads. Ask whether you will gain access to such automation tools.
18. Are They Comfortable With Your Brand And Culture?
Don’t be afraid to look for competing options if there isn’t a required level of overlap in conducting business and company cultures. A clash of cultures and approaches to building brands will lead to unnecessary difficult conversations. So proceed with caution.
19. What Will Be The Cost?
You need to understand the investment required from your business. The quip “You get what you pay for” is prescient here. However, a cheaper or more expensive proposal does not mean it’s the right choice for your business. Use the screening abilities you’ve showcased to make the best decision. Prices can range from $1-5k per month on one end of the spectrum to rise as high as $25-100k on the other.
20. Is The Contract Flexible?
If you’re dissatisfied with the results, you’d ideally like to bring a “bad” decision to a close. Ensure you’re clear about the level of flexibility and leeway the contract offers.
Parting Thoughts
SaaS businesses stand to gain a lot of benefits from dedicated content marketing agencies. But that is only possible if the SaaS content marketing agency knows what they’re doing. We hope this comprehensive list will help you shortlist and recruit the right content marketing agency for your business.
As a bonus, ensure that the content marketing agency you’re looking to hire possesses these 5 strengths!
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information. If your organisation wants its content marketing strategy designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Getting content marketing right is crucial for growing SaaS enterprises.
This study from Animalz states that about 85% of all blog traffic for SaaS companies comes from organic search. SEO approaches like “Pain Point SEO” can increase organic page views, signups and more. Content marketing is essential for SaaS companies since it helps build relationships with their target audience, nailing down repeat sales and recurring subscriptions.
Rather than figuring out a content marketing process from scratch, hiring a dedicated SaaS content marketing agency and plugging your business model into their established systems will be more cost-effective.
SaaS content marketing agencies are an excellent fit to help generate recurring revenue for software-as-a-service brands. They can do so because they have an in-depth knowledge of SaaS businesses and can build effective content strategies for your enterprise.
But how do you determine whether or not a SaaS content marketing agency can deliver the results you’re looking to achieve? What are the qualities you should be looking for in prospective agencies? To help you find the right agency, follow the tips outlined in the piece and get cracking.
#1 – Specialises In SaaS Content Marketing
#2 – Specialises In Your Industry
#3 – Works For Your B2B SaaS Growth Stage
#4 – Clearly Outlines Their Target Channel
#5 – Displays Industry-specific Case Studies
#6 – Displays Client Testimonials
#7 – Dynamic Team
#8 – Pre-contract Consultation: Free or Paid
#9 – Contract Length: Fixed or Flexible
#10 – Pricing Structure: Standard or Custom
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Criteria For Choosing A SaaS Content Marketing Agency
#1 – Specialises In SaaS Content Marketing
When you scout for SaaS content marketing agencies, you’ll find that some agencies will provide full-scale end-to-end deals like Grow and Convert and Concurate or specialise in link building like Heroic Search. You may need an agency to market your SaaS enterprise on social media; that’s where content marketing agencies like Siarza Social Digital come into the picture.
#2 – Specialises In Your Industry
When you’re trying to solve a medical problem related to your kidney, you’re going to consult a urologist rather than a general practitioner, aren’t you?
In the same way, you’re better off hiring a SaaS content marketing agency that caters to your specific industry. This way, you’ll be assured that the agency knows about your target audience and their pain points, who is your competition, and deliver actionable solutions around these points.
For example, at Concurate, we’ve worked with clients like Triangle IP in the domain of Intellectual Property, allowing us to give insightful solutions that help bring revenue, not just traffic.
#3 – Works For Your B2B SaaS Growth Stage
While there is no harm in going for the services of established or bespoke SaaS content marketing agencies, it certainly helps collaborate with one more attuned to your growth stage.
There are essentially three stages of growth for B2B SaaS businesses. Agencies like Kalungi can work on each of the three stages: Whether you’re at $1M to $10M ARR, $10M to $100M ARR, or $100M+ ARR. Concurate works with medium-sized B2B SaaS businesses, as another example.
#4 – Clearly Outlines Their Target Channel
A SaaS content marketing agency can help its clients by developing a content marketing strategy that is the right fit for their unique needs. The agency will create high-quality content that suits the target audience’s pain points and promote content through effective distribution channels. Because let’s face it, traditional social media giants are not the only place your target audience is likely to spend time.
#5 – Displays Industry-specific Case Studies
It’s a good practice to vet an agency’s credibility and ask for industry and customer-specific case studies to validate the claims that the agency is providing. For example, Concurate has published its own B2B client success story, and so has Grow and Convert for a B2C client.
#6 – Displays Client Testimonials
As an extension of the previous point, it’s a good practice to look out for client testimonials and gauge what kind of services the SaaS content marketing agency was able to provide.
#7 – Dynamic Team
A quality content marketing agency will be transparent about its workforce. A helpful next step is to consider their content production skills. Then, get a walkthrough of the agency’s key members and conduct a gut check on whether they’re a fit for you or not.
#8 – Pre-contract Consultation: Free or Paid
While authenticating whether or not an agency is suitable for your business needs, it’s a good practice to vet their capabilities beforehand by letting them conduct a consultation call. Again, be in the clear whether such consultations are free of charge or not.
#9 – Contract Length: Fixed or Flexible
Another critical point is determining whether the content marketing agency offers flexibility in terms of contractual obligations. For example, are you allowed to walk away anytime if the services don’t match your expectations or not? Again, ensure that such details are clear from the outset.
#10 – Pricing Structure: Standard or Custom
Before taking the plunge, understand whether the pricing is a fit for you or not. For example, is the content marketing agency offering bespoke custom pricing or a fixed flat fee?
Parting Thoughts
SaaS enterprises stand to gain a lot of benefits from content marketing. But that is only possible if your SaaS content marketing agency knows what they’re doing. Ensure alignment in content marketing speciality; industry served; pricing; contractual obligations, and more.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If your organisation wants its content marketing strategy designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
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