According to a study by Mckinsey, 90% of SaaS startups fail to achieve the desired level of success and struggle to generate revenue.
This high rate of failure can be attributed to factors like lack of unique value proposition and poor marketing and sales efforts. Many SaaS startups believe that their product will sell itself, however, in reality, it takes considerable efforts to generate leads and retain customers.
Furthermore, in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, SaaS businesses face fierce competition and ever-changing consumer demands. To market their business in this environment, they need effective growth marketing strategies. Growth marketing is a data-driven approach that helps businesses acquire new customers, retain the existing ones and convert them into brand advocates. In this blog, we bring you 10 SaaS Growth Marketing Case Studies, highlighting innovative approaches, successful campaigns, and strategies that have propelled SaaS businesses to new heights.
2. What is Growth Marketing in SaaS?
Growth marketing in SaaS is the process of acquiring and converting users through a combination of techniques, including SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, growth hacking, email marketing, and lead generation campaigns. The primary goal is to implement a unique set of marketing strategies that help build awareness and sell your SaaS products through digital channels.
3.What Is a SaaS Case Study?
A SaaS case study is a data-backed narrative of how you successfully delivered and implemented a SaaS solution for your clients. It has some information about the customer, their challenges, and how your product solved their problems or helped them find desired success through measurable
3.1 Why Are SaaS Growth Marketing Case Studies Important?
- Demonstrate your expertise
Case studies are an effective way to capture the attention of buyers in the industry because the use cases covered in them are highly relevant to your target audience. For instance, if you are evaluating different sales management software, all with product details and informative content. But, the one with a SaaS growth marketing case study that illustrates how its clients have closed 50% of deals might catch your attention.
- Strengthen customer relations
It helps you strengthen your relationship with your customers by knowing your story. The facts and figures will increase trust and customer retention, which can grow your SaaS company. Using case studies in SaaS growth marketing will help your customers not only see things logically but see what it looks like to be a happy customer. Your prospective clients can get to know your customers at a deeper and personal level.
- Acts as social proof
With more than 90% of customers purchasing through product reviews, publishing case studies on your website are social proof.
With customers’ changing requirements, your case study will help them understand how your product will help them. You can include everything from implementing your software to your customer’s future use cases.
4.What Should a Marketing Case Study Include?
A great SaaS growth marketing case study should include -key details that show how your customers benefited by using your product. Your customer has come to you with a problem or needs you to solve it. By showcasing that you were able to solve similar problems can create an impact on your audience. Here are some considerations that help you create the best SaaS growth marketing case studies –
- What is the target audience?
- What are the challenges faced by the company?
- What were you looking for in the solution?
- What was the industry & sector?
- What processes were followed during implementing the solution?
- What kind of success did your client enjoy with your product?
Listed down below are some of the case studies, explaining how growth marketing has helped businesses achieve their goals –
4.1 Canva
Canva is an online graphic designing tool that has experienced significant growth in less than seven years. The case study of Canva shows how its business model and growth strategy played a role in acquiring 15 million users in just a few years. Its customer acquisition strategy relied on fulfilling the needs of those who wanted to create beautiful graphics without friction. They could reach their target audience with a growth strategy: a website, product page, paid media campaigns, social media ads, content marketing tactics, and targeted SEO.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Canva.
4.2 Hubspot
HubSpot is a CRM platform that grew to $100M in revenue in 8 years. It has built an audience of 6 million people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blog visitors. Known for their inbound marketing features, their subscriptions accounted for 94% of their revenue. As a growth marketing strategy, it got its brand in front of the audience through content partnerships. Besides its Facebook video strategy, LinkedIn posts, Facebook posts, and sponsored content, it could drive high-quality leads. Besides, there is a lot of valuable content on HubSpot’s website, which contributed to the low bounce rate and high time on the website.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Hubspot.
4.3 Xero
Xero is online accounting software that has helped many new businesses launch and succeed. As a part of its growth marketing strategy, Xero wanted to reach accountants and bookkeepers to accelerate its growth and bring revenue. With an extensive partner program, it helped their partners generate more clients. This approach helped them grab 90% of paid subscriptions from New Zealand & Australia. They marketed themselves in the best way with an informative website, engaging email marketing strategies, paid media campaigns, landing pages, content marketing tactics, social media profiles, events, and videos.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Xero.
4.4 Active Campaign
Active Campaign is a powerful automation tool for marketers and founders at software firms. With an effective growth strategy, this startup built a conversion funnel & grew to 50,000 customers. They attracted thousands of target audiences using content upgrades, email sequences, relationship funnel, and messaging. It largely centered around segmenting their email list and sending subscriber newsletters with relevant blog posts. This is one of the best SaaS growth marketing case studies that will help you understand how a company achieved massive growth and success with email marketing.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Active Campaign.
4.5 Topaz Labs
Topaz Labs is an AI-powered software that helps you create incredible photos and videos. This photography software company generated 14,000+ followers on YouTube, 13,000+ social shares, and 44,000+ emails from a single social media contest. The primary goal of their contest was to build an email list. They leveraged social media sharing & tagging features on Facebook & Instagram. With an exciting growth marketing strategy, they generated a huge buzz and grew their SaaS company in less time.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Topaz Labs.
4.6 Groupon
Groupon is a coupon website that offers group deals with discounts to customers. One of the challenges faced by them was the lack of signups for deals on their website. To spread the word about its deals and boost its brand awareness, it employed many growth hacks and grew its revenue in one year. The company turned its customers into marketers by encouraging them to refer friends. Besides, its daily emails can be attributed to its surge in growth. Their daily emails kept their subscribers returning to their Groupon product at least a few times a week.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Groupon.
4.7 Slack
Slack is a messaging program designed for offices that achieved 100,000,000 website visitors per month from medium articles that shared the company updates, sponsored podcasts, workplace tips, and tutorials. They are the fastest growing SaaS company that has gone from being valued at $0 to $5 billion in just four years. Its initial growth was a result of word-of-mouth marketing. They had a different strategy for each of the social media platforms. For instance, they used YouTube to drive customer acquisition, Facebook to update fans, and Twitter to drive viral awareness.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Slack.
4.8 Airbnb
Airbnb is an online marketplace for homestays, lodging, and tourism activities. They attracted and retained 150 million users in 11 years and are growing at a rate that most businesses can dream of. It took an unorthodox approach to getting noticed in the offline world. They put much effort into understanding their users, guests, and hosts and built a strategy that speaks to them directly. They have built products that solve the needs of their users to ensure growth from existing customers. They primarily rely on organic search, and their content is designed to keep people on the site. Conversely, offline marketing discusses its core values to help them connect with existing customers.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Airbnb.
4.9 ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a website and sales funnel creator that helps businesses automate their sales process from A to Z. They built a $100m revenue empire in 10 years. As their key growth strategy, they created sales funnels using webinars, free books, free reports, and an enticing challenge that helped them acquire thousands of customers daily. One of the webinars, “Secret Funnel Strategy,” revealed a strategy that helps businesses grow quickly. With this webinar, they wanted to build desire for the product, which was sold at the end of the webinar. They promoted this webinar through affiliate partners and paid ads, which gave them 10,000 paying customers. Besides, they introduced “The Free Book Funnel,” “The Challenge Funnel,” and “Marketing Secrets Blackbook” to acquire new customers.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of ClickFunnels.
4.10 Buffer
Buffer is a social media management platform designed to manage multiple social media accounts. With a yearly income of $4 million, it has become one of the best social media management platforms. Like other startups, it was started in a college room in the UK. With a fantastic content strategy, it could capture 100,000 users in 10 months before becoming a multi-dollar business. The company owed its success to a well-established content marketing strategy, growth hacking, and an excellent product.
To know more, read the detailed Case Study of Buffer.
Now that have you have explored growth marketing case studies of different SaaS based businesses, let’s see how a digital marketing agency can help in the process –
5.How a Digital Marketing Agency Can Help?
A digital marketing agency has the requisite experience and expertise to determine the best growth channels for your business. They leverage data-driven insights and latest digital marketing trends to create effective marketing campaigns that resonates with the target audience and bring you desired results.
Growth Ganik is a full-stack digital marketing agency in Sydney, Australia, specialising in growth marketing, SEO, content marketing, marketing strategy, and paid media. We work with clients from leading brands and industries such as B2B SaaS, nonprofits, and more to develop profitable growth marketing solutions that are data-driven. We help businesses to widen their user bases, gain more traction for online engagement, increase conversion, and achieve their marketing goals. For tailor-made digital solutions and sustainable growth insights, book a free consultation with us!
