![\"\"](\"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/marketing-tech-statistics.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis means that unless you\u2019re a tech giant like Google or Microsoft, customers aren\u2019t going to beat a path to your door just because you built a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To thrive in today\u2019s crowded environment, you need a\u00a0strong lead generation strategy\u00a0that puts your product in front of customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this post, we\u2019ll explore the timeless strategies that today\u2019s smart SaaS companies use to\u00a0generate leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
01. Get customers to bring SaaS leads to you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Despite a minimal marketing budget, Dropbox <\/strong>is worth billions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re also the poster company for \u201cviral\u201d referral marketing. And when you consider their growth metrics, it\u2019s easy to see why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, you don\u2019t need your referral marketing campaign to go viral in order to generate leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During its launch phase,\u00a0Leadfeeder\u00a0used referral marketing to accelerate growth and acquire new users for their MVP (minimum viable product). After referring new customers to their free trial, they rewarded users with premium feature unlocks and more time to enjoy their trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is partly responsible for their 6-month rise from $0-150K in monthly recurring revenue (MRR)\u00a0without a sales team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re an up-and-coming SaaS company, don\u2019t underestimate the value of building your referral-friendly free trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the helm of a two-person SaaS startup, Pardeep Kullar and Joe d’Elia were struggling to juggle sales, marketing, and customer support for Anymail finder, an\u00a0email verification SaaS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a high-volume of repeated questions and support queries, they were spending too much time playing the support role instead of generating leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make up for their limited support team, the founders eventually turned to an AI chatbot provided by Intercom<\/a>. According to cofounder Pardeep, the chatbot streamlined the entire customer support and sales process with pre-written resolutions to common questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This reduced their average response time, generated more leads, and resulted in\u00a060 percent more revenue\u00a0with 9 out of 10 high-value leads using the chat system before buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Livechat software is often used to replicate the in-store customer experience online. The problem is, if you\u2019re a startup or a small team like Anymail finder, you lack the bandwidth to deal with multiple complex requests at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can damage\u00a0customer experience\u00a0and eventually cause revenues to plunge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why SaaS companies from startups to industry leaders like Salesforce, Drift, and Segment are using AI-powered chatbots to score, support, and generate leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you know that buyers are more likely to engage with vendors early in\u00a0the buyer journey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in the research phase,\u00a071 percent admit to\u00a0accepting a contact request with a potential vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you consider that\u00a092 percent of B2B buyers<\/a>\u00a0also use online reviews to inform a purchase, the power of a presence on review sites is not to be ignored. It means you can show your product to buyers right when they\u2019re searching for a solution that you provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Establishing a presence on review sites can be a longwinded process. To speed it up, follow the 3 hacks Cloudapp used to go from\u00a0zero to 275 reviews<\/a>\u00a0within 6 months and feature in G2\u2019s top 100 software companies list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Begin by reaching out to those who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to research from LinkedIn, 78 percent of social sellers outsell their peers<\/a>. They\u2019re also far more likely to find sales opportunities and hit quota. But, what exactly is social selling for B2B SaaS companies? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Social selling is like a \u201clite\u201d version of account-based marketing. You\u2019re still: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The difference, however, is that social selling occurs on a smaller scale through the medium of a social media platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Metadata, for e.g.,\u00a0used social selling\u00a0in lieu of an expensive account-based lead generation campaign. Director of growth, Logan Neveau, set up custom feeds to track web visits from high-value social media accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After qualifying the account against an ideal client profile (ICP), the lead was then \u201copened\u201d to the entire team; team members who then shared any connections with the account could initiate a conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To generate more leads from\u00a0social selling<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content marketing is an\u00a0effective lead generation strategy\u00a0for B2B SaaS companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It helped shape HubSpot into the multi-million dollar<\/a> brand it is today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It increased Ridester\u2019s\u00a0organic traffic by 487<\/a>\u00a0percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content marketing even rescued Groove from the clutches of startup death and guided it into a $5 million dollar company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as Alex Turnbull, Groove\u2019s founder,\u00a0learned the hard way, content marketing has evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStandard\u201d content (even if it is long-form) fails to cut the mustard because the web is saturated with rehashed 1000-word how-to’s. Writing another one won\u2019t attract users to your product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To generate B2B\u00a0leads from your content<\/a>, follow the industry leaders: carve out unique content only your brand can create. For example<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find your unique content marketing angle, and double down on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dazzle of a new product is no longer enough to catch attention and generate leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/dropbox-referral-campaign.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n02. Get chatbots to generate leads for you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/intercom-ai-chatbot.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n03. Hack SaaS review sites to expand your reach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
04. Develop high-value relationships with social selling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/azoora.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/b2b-buyer-journey.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n05. Create content that carries your company\u2019s DNA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
SaaS lead generation doesn\u2019t have to be a struggle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n