Business growth is not a linear journey and there is not only one way to grow your business. New types of ways for growing business have emerged since technology and online transformation started to shape our world. Product-Led Growth is certainly different than traditional growth, in many ways. Especially for SaaS businesses. The nature of SaaS business is highlighted with different aspects of the traditional business structure. That’s why it is hard for them to use traditional business routes and growth strategies. So, SaaS businesses lean to use Product-Led Growth by nature. The value of the company’s product is everything and it is the main source for successful growth for Product-Led Growth strategies.
Recently, we have experienced a huge success of businesses with product-led growth strategies rapidly. Their success stories are behind their product’s acquisition qualities. The product is what the company values most. It is often considered as the heart of the Product-Led Growth businesses. Clean, clear, and the concentrated product is what the companies expect from their teams. This has an enormous impact on sales and marketing teams and their goals, too.
Now that we have covered what product-led growth in SaaS and why it is important, we can proceed deeply. We are going to look at some of the major benefits of using product-led growth strategies in SaaS businesses.
Major benefits of utilizing product-led growth in SaaS
1. Cost-efficient
Customer acquisition management is the key to cost-efficient Product-Led Growth(PLG) in SaaS businesses. Contrary to the traditional business strategies, especially for selling strategies, marketing and sales teams lean towards creating better solutions for customer self-education. Therefore, businesses come up with less traditional roles in marketing and sales departments.
PLG’s impact is not about the cost, also about the product price. Pricing strategies are based around it. Freemium and free trials are offered thanks to companies’ PLG strategies. Freemium often works better with lower customer acquisition. The user will come to try the product but there is no promise to be a long-time customer. A free trial is another acquisition model. Users experience the product for a limited time without paying anything yet. Trial time will push the users to decide whether to be a customer or not. This could be a great advantage.
2. Focus on experienced value, rather than only perceived value.
Since the most valued asset for the Product-Led Growth strategies is the user experience, experienced value is more valuable than perceived value here. The value gap is what it is called between the experienced value and the perceived value. The companies should try to close this gap as much as they can.
How do they accomplish this? Simply by making promises and plans that are compatible with what they actually can achieve in the reality. In other words, simply creating realistic expectations and realize them. In this way, customers will experience what they have been promised before. This is a great way for companies to portray themselves positively.
3. The Competitive Environment
Unlike the traditional business environment, competitiveness in Product-Led Growth is different. Product-led growth provides customers with a self-sufficient product. These self-sufficient products are beneficial for the customers and they are happy about them. So they are willing to recommend the business they are happy about, to other potential customers of yours.
Digital transformation is a must for Product-Led Growth businesses. Businesses with traditional growth strategies often struggle with sales and marketing problems in order to cope with their customer needs. In this manner, they spend a lot of energy to come up with solutions.
4. The User Experience
Last but certainly not least, the user experience. In the end, Product led growth offers a better user experience. And this is really important for SaaS businesses. To employ the PLG strategy for the SaaS businesses, their products should be the leading products in their respective classes. This already gives the SaaS businesses an advantage to create a better user experience. Also, these products are self-reliant and they do not need further intervention from the companies. Users find it effortless to execute their purchased products without any external help.
The PLG marketing team is the key factor for the user experience. Their work should focus on user experience more than the other teams in the SaaS businesses. They should be successful to get new customers and ornament the customers with a well-designed experience. Also, they should use the data received from the product, so that the team can use them to improve.
Customer empathy is very crucial for PLG businesses in SaaS. The teams should be able to understand the customers and their needs. So that they can aim to fulfill these. The product is the result of this deep empathy for the customers. Empathy is needed not only for the production and delivery but also for marketing purposes. Customer behaviors are various. Some customers prefer to talk it out with someone to make a decision to buy. Some are more closed and quiet when making a decision. Companies should focus on a bigger range of customers and their behavioral patterns to be successful.
As AnnounceKit, we have successfully implemented these strategies for our products so that our users can get the best experience!
Product-Led Growth in SaaS makes the Industry more powerful
There are different strategies out there when it comes to business growth. Product-Led Growth strategies are an interesting part of the growth strategy and the SaaS industry takes benefit from using them as their main growth strategy. They are a good couple working towards a better product. The customers of SaaS companies also benefited from this growth strategy. Because Product-Led growth is cost-efficient. Also, the user experience is one of the main drives for this type of growth strategy.
You can read our previous post on https://announcekit.app/blog/the-best-saas-marketing-trends-for-2021/
