I’ve run a few businesses before, mostly unsuccessful, but some successful. One of those is a SaaS.
I don’t know much, but I do know a bit.
Here is what I would do to market a new B2B SaaS venture on day one:
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Cold email outreach at scale
I have made this an ROI positive activity for a $50/month SaaS, but I would do this no matter the price point.
Even if not ROI positive, it’s going to be the cheapest way you can put your name in front of people, by a large margin.
Some people don’t like the idea of cold email. But if you have a very well targeted list, great email copy, and you don’t overdo it, it’s a fantastic channel.
I’ll write a longer article on this in the near future, but here are the cliff notes:
Gather an email list of 500 people who could use your SaaS, write a 4 email sequence to be sent over 3 weeks, and use a cold email outreach tool like Mailshake.com to scale that outreach. Just send 20-30 emails each day, follow ups included.
Whatever you do, make sure you automate this. Do not fool yourself into thinking you will be able to do this manually.
You might make it a few days, individually sending 20-30 emails per day, but eventually it will fall off. It’s just too damn tedious.
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Write one great piece of content on the problem you solve
Something like an “ultimate guide” piece of content that will serve as pillar content. Like this.
You can use this in just about every other marketing activity you do.
Those cold email campaigns I mentioned above? I use this content as an “excuse” to email - to deliver value. And it makes those emails much nicer to receive.
I can use it in sales conversations. And paid ads.
It’s a core piece of value you can use in all situations and is well worth your time to write.
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Reach out to your network
Not much explanation required. Make a list of everyone in your network who could potentially use your SaaS, and email them to set up a conversation.
Position it as “figuring out if there’s a market for this”, which is what you’re doing if it’s day one. Involve them in the process of launching.
Have the conversation and take it from there. If it’s a good fit for them or someone else they know, ask for the sale or an introduction.
I’ll leave it at that - you know what to do here.
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So that’s it. That’s what I would do on day one if I were marketing a new B2B SaaS.
Coincidentally, I’ll be doing exactly that in a few months, and will be eating my own dog food ;) Stay tuned.