Our experiences with SaaS startups indicate that they usually start with a couple of lead generation programs such as Pay Per Click Google Ad-words, radio ads, etc

What we have found is that each of these lead sources tends to saturate over time, and produce less leads for more dollars invested. As a result, SaaS companies will need to be constantly evaluating new lead sources that they can layer in on top of the old to keep growing.

Since the conversion rates and costs per lead vary quite considerably, it is important to also measure the overall ROI by lead source.

Growing leads fast enough to feed the front end of the funnel is one of the perennial challenges for any SaaS company, and is likely to be one of the greatest limiting factors to growth. If you are facing that situation, the most powerful advice we can give you is to start investing in Inbound Marketing techniques (see Get Found using Inbound Marketing). This will take time to ramp up, but if you can do it well, will lead to far lower lead costs, and greater scaling than other paid techniques. Additionally the typical SaaS buyer is clearly web-savvy, and therefore very likely to embrace inbound marketing content and touchless selling techniques.

SaaS & Tech Growth Strategy Articles

• Social Media Trends for B2B SaaS Brands
  Social Media Trends for B2B SaaS Brands to gain trust, drive trials & demos and speed up the sales cycle.
• Sharing Your Vision With Your Customers
  How can you share your vision with your customers? Andy shares his recommendations on bridging the customer gap.
• 7 Key SaaS Growth Strategies
  Customers aren't just going to appear; marketing teams need to proactively reach them in creative ways. In the current marketing landscape, brands have a near limitless number of ways to reach potential customers.
• 10 Reasons Your Customers Are Churning
  Churn is a death knell for any business. Make sure you aren't making any of these common reasons your customers are churning.
• Blue Ocean Strategy Developing Value Propositions
• The Basics of Analyzing Your Audience
  As audience analysis month draws to a close, Rick goes over the basics to make sure we understand the goals and importance of taking time to analyze your audience. It’s audience analysis month here at Insivia, so lets go over some of the basics and make sure you understand the importance of analyzing your audience. […]
• Organization Structure Planning
  In this Insivia insight, Andy points out how important organization structure planning is to your long term goals. Unless you are a sole proprietor working alone, you team will be a vital part of your growth and success. Incorporating them into your plan will not only help them see how all of the pieces fit […]
• Create a Tangible Strategic Vision
  When it comes to creating a strategic vision for your business, a few elements likely pop into mind, such as a mission, your values or your core beliefs. While all of these factors are important, business owners can forget one very important one – making your business tangible. Look up the definition of this word […]
• Successful B2B SaaS Product Launch
  Successful B2B SaaS Product LaunchWhen you've finally finished development and created a SaaS product you are proud of, the next phase is to release your product to prospective customers.This is hardly as easy as opening the doors to the storefront and welcoming customers.In the SaaS industry, you must find a way to digitally bring people […]

SaaS + Software Stats

• For a SaaS business of almost any scale, the valuation impact of better retention is in the tens of millions over time
• The median annual contract value (ACV) was $25K, $21K, $21K, $20K in 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013
• Customer’s lifetime value (LTV)= average revenue per user (ARPU) / monthly churn rate
• High-growth companies generate 60% fewer sales opportunities than low-growth companies
• Non-renewal rates are higher than gross dollar churn rates and higher for shorter duration contracts
• Non-renewal rates are higher than gross dollar churn rates and higher for shorter duration contracts. Source: ForEntrepreneurs
• Investment in marketing automation tools is expected to reach $25 billion by the year 2023
• Smaller SAAS companies reported more frequent use of third-party providers as their primary application delivery method, while the largest companies were more likely to use self-managed servers
• The metrics that matter for each sales funnel, vary from one company to the next depending on the steps involved in the funnel

SaaS & Tech Growth Strategy Stats

• Moving from $1.5 million with an eye towards $10 million in ARR is a tough a task and will take an excellent VP of sales to get you there
• Companies with longer contracts (2+ years) reported the lowest annual unit churn
• If your Net Revenue Churn is high (above 2% per month) it is an indicator that there is something wrong in your business; which may have a dramatically negative effect on your company’s growth. Source: Mckinsey
• In 2017, IBM generated 37.8 billion U.S. dollars in global IT services revenue, making it the largest IT services company in the world in terms of net sales
• Publicly-traded SaaS companies have an average Revenue Per Employee of $200,000
• The 2015 median revenue growth rate was 44%, while the median projected growth rate for 2016 is 48%
• Cloud-hosted applications have a 99% uptime
• In 2018, the U.S. imported aerospace products worth about 53.98 billion U.S. dollars.
• The fastest growing SaaS companies scale their organizations rapidly, growing their teams by an average of 56% each year