Awesome insights David. We are currently trying to growth hack our virtual accountability/coworking tool Focusmate so I really appreciate all the tips and insights. Hoping to apply your advice on using software directories to aid us in the very near future!
Cheers for the great post.
1
Thank you! A while back, I had a similar idea like Focusmate :) Good luck!
3
Thanks for sharing. 🙌
3
Hey David. Great story! I'm definitely going to implement parts of the first growth hack you listed once I launch my SaaS app. Thanks a ton. :)
1
You're welcome Jake :)
2
Super inspiring story David! As the marketing guy, what was your approach to getting more clients? You mentioned PPC ads and hiring salespeople, was your customer base something like 30% from PPC and 70% from your sales staff cold-calling?
Referral ("i saw your software on a different website")
Affiliate
Magento/WordPress plugins
Blog (content marketing)
Usually, it's a combination of 2 or more. Cold calling makes up for less than 1%, our sales staff focuses mainly on the Trial->Upgrade funnel by guiding customers.
1
Appreciate the detailed answer! It's great that you're focused on the trial-upgrade part, which I can imagine the customer service really helps to convert into sales.
Just one last question, did you track how many prospects come from the list you gave (Organic/PPC/Referral/Affiliate/Plugins/Blog) before they started the trial? If so, what was the percentages like?
1
Hi Isaac, we track the source of trials per channel. But the metric which is more important is source of "upgrades" e.g. we match paying customers with the source they came from and see how many came from the source and how much they're paying. That way, we can 99% tell which channel is the highest grossing.
Example: We get a lot of trials from referrals/branding but they don't convert as well as software directories, so knowing "how many" trials come from each source would be irrelevant because the ultimate goal is not trials but paying customers.
I hope it makes sense :D
1
Yeah, you're right. Conversion rate is way more important than sheer numbers, cos then you'll know which channel to invest more for maximum effectiveness. Time for me to look closer at my analytics!
1
Very informative David, we also try to do some experiments on how we can improve conversions by finding a great app that could provide us with substantial number leads. We have several apps tested that we found on this website -> https://alternatives.co/
1
Awesome stuff! Connecting with you on LinkedIn - will love to take your advice on some of the things that we are experimenting with!
1
Ahoj Dávid :) It's nice to see here somebody from my home country.
I got a lot of value from this. I appreciate you taking the time to share all of this info! I have a question for you:
What is one strategy you would have focused on in the very beginning of growing LiveAgent, if you had no existing customers from another product to sell to (if you had to truly start from nothing)?
Would it be putting out valuable content relevant to your target audience, cold emailing to get sales, giving heavily discounted/free licenses away, etc?
Thank you,
Tyrel
2
Hi Tyrel,
before investing in content I would definitely try to build online presence on software directories. "Comparison marketing" is also a great way to get organic traffic. People tend to Google "Alternative to xy" - this is a strategy I haven't mentioned in the article but worked for us really well. Other than the traditional software directories mentioned above, you can also try alternative.to which ranks pretty high on SERP. So I would give away a few licenses for free and create profiles and ask for reviews to gain exposure. Budget: $0.
Awesome insights David. We are currently trying to growth hack our virtual accountability/coworking tool Focusmate so I really appreciate all the tips and insights. Hoping to apply your advice on using software directories to aid us in the very near future!
Cheers for the great post.
Thank you! A while back, I had a similar idea like Focusmate :) Good luck!
Thanks for sharing. 🙌
Hey David. Great story! I'm definitely going to implement parts of the first growth hack you listed once I launch my SaaS app. Thanks a ton. :)
You're welcome Jake :)
Super inspiring story David! As the marketing guy, what was your approach to getting more clients? You mentioned PPC ads and hiring salespeople, was your customer base something like 30% from PPC and 70% from your sales staff cold-calling?
Hi Isaac, thank you!
Our leads come from:
Organic
PPC AdWords
Organic + PPC Software directories (Capterra, GetApp, G2Crowd)
Referral ("i saw your software on a different website")
Affiliate
Magento/WordPress plugins
Blog (content marketing)
Usually, it's a combination of 2 or more. Cold calling makes up for less than 1%, our sales staff focuses mainly on the Trial->Upgrade funnel by guiding customers.
Appreciate the detailed answer! It's great that you're focused on the trial-upgrade part, which I can imagine the customer service really helps to convert into sales.
Just one last question, did you track how many prospects come from the list you gave (Organic/PPC/Referral/Affiliate/Plugins/Blog) before they started the trial? If so, what was the percentages like?
Hi Isaac, we track the source of trials per channel. But the metric which is more important is source of "upgrades" e.g. we match paying customers with the source they came from and see how many came from the source and how much they're paying. That way, we can 99% tell which channel is the highest grossing.
Example: We get a lot of trials from referrals/branding but they don't convert as well as software directories, so knowing "how many" trials come from each source would be irrelevant because the ultimate goal is not trials but paying customers.
I hope it makes sense :D
Yeah, you're right. Conversion rate is way more important than sheer numbers, cos then you'll know which channel to invest more for maximum effectiveness. Time for me to look closer at my analytics!
Very informative David, we also try to do some experiments on how we can improve conversions by finding a great app that could provide us with substantial number leads. We have several apps tested that we found on this website -> https://alternatives.co/
Awesome stuff! Connecting with you on LinkedIn - will love to take your advice on some of the things that we are experimenting with!
Ahoj Dávid :) It's nice to see here somebody from my home country.
Ahoj :) Likewise!
Hi David @mnzrs ,
I got a lot of value from this. I appreciate you taking the time to share all of this info! I have a question for you:
What is one strategy you would have focused on in the very beginning of growing LiveAgent, if you had no existing customers from another product to sell to (if you had to truly start from nothing)?
Would it be putting out valuable content relevant to your target audience, cold emailing to get sales, giving heavily discounted/free licenses away, etc?
Thank you,
Tyrel
Hi Tyrel,
before investing in content I would definitely try to build online presence on software directories. "Comparison marketing" is also a great way to get organic traffic. People tend to Google "Alternative to xy" - this is a strategy I haven't mentioned in the article but worked for us really well. Other than the traditional software directories mentioned above, you can also try alternative.to which ranks pretty high on SERP. So I would give away a few licenses for free and create profiles and ask for reviews to gain exposure. Budget: $0.
Cheers,
D.
Great story
Thank you!