I work at 2600hz and I'm the head of marketing so I feel pretty comfortable chiming in here :).
>When did people start paying for your SaaS?
I think the earliest indicator I had that people would pay for our product was when someone said "Wow" when they saw it. We started the company out as a consulting venture because we couldn't raise VC money. The launch of the SaaS platform coincided with the V2 of our GUI, and so we had a strong indication from the consulting that folks would pay, but it was quite relieving to actually see dollars coming in to our coffers.
>How many times did it take before you got it right?
I think it's honestly still a work in progress. The first time I felt ok about asking someone to pay for our product was when I was comfortable using it myself and when I could see real value when positioning it to people. This was roughly a year after I started (I'm in my 3rd year now) because we didn't get it right on the first iteration at all.
>What works for traction?
Content. We started doing Expert Q&A sessions that attract a lot of attendance, but they're active traffic acquisition channels for us. Each presentation nets about 1000 views a month right now, so there's a lot of value in continuing to develop that kind of high-quality content. I think people in your industry value expert commentary, so if you're in a position to provide it, do it. (We are at $X,000,000 in revenue in a little over 3 years, bootstrapped, so I know it can be done).
>What promos work?
Promos usually don't work. We're not in PayPal land where your cost of acquisition can be $20 per customer. That's insane. What works now is great content, syndicated effectively.
>What marketing tactics?
1) Great content
2) Speak at conferences
3) Charity (Not because it's going to pay you back, but because people love the things you're passionate about)
I think the best promotion/marketing advice I can give you is to be passionate about what you do and represent that passion with class. That's the ticket to success, in any walk of life :).
TL;DR: Content Marketing + Syndication. People will buy your SaaS when it solves a problem you yourself experience daily.
I don't know a ton about your industry, but why can't you spend $20 per customer? I can't imagine your clv is lower than that. Or are you saying you wish you only had to spend that much?
Ok, then I misunderstood the comment. I was thinking they were saying $20 was too much to spend, not that they wish they could get away with only spending $20 per acquistion. Thanks for clarifying!
PayPal's model was "signup get $10 oh and for everyone you refer we'll give them $10 and you $10". Which is all well and good when you've got venture financing and a land grab market, but we aren't in that market and we don't have that financing.
If I could pay $20 and be 100% sure I'd get a new customer, hell, if I could pay $500, I'd do it every time. You can find marketing channels like that, but finding the repeatable marketing channels of that nature is the gold mine hunting of marketing. When you find the repeatable channels, your viral channels, that's when your pour on the gas.
HN is a great channel. You don't have to submit links onto the home page to have an impact. Answering a question with a helpful link to a blog post can be almost as impactful.
Journalists are hungry for content, and so are your fellow bloggers. Just find people you vibe with and develop a relationship. Don't slam them with "you should love me cuz I'm awesome". Hit'em with something you care about that may be entirely unrelated to what you're doing.
Network; introduce your friends to reporters, ask the people you know for connections in media. Take time, build a succinct, pretty splash page and have a clear call to action.
>When did people start paying for your SaaS?
I think the earliest indicator I had that people would pay for our product was when someone said "Wow" when they saw it. We started the company out as a consulting venture because we couldn't raise VC money. The launch of the SaaS platform coincided with the V2 of our GUI, and so we had a strong indication from the consulting that folks would pay, but it was quite relieving to actually see dollars coming in to our coffers.
>How many times did it take before you got it right?
I think it's honestly still a work in progress. The first time I felt ok about asking someone to pay for our product was when I was comfortable using it myself and when I could see real value when positioning it to people. This was roughly a year after I started (I'm in my 3rd year now) because we didn't get it right on the first iteration at all.
>What works for traction?
Content. We started doing Expert Q&A sessions that attract a lot of attendance, but they're active traffic acquisition channels for us. Each presentation nets about 1000 views a month right now, so there's a lot of value in continuing to develop that kind of high-quality content. I think people in your industry value expert commentary, so if you're in a position to provide it, do it. (We are at $X,000,000 in revenue in a little over 3 years, bootstrapped, so I know it can be done).
>What promos work?
Promos usually don't work. We're not in PayPal land where your cost of acquisition can be $20 per customer. That's insane. What works now is great content, syndicated effectively.
>What marketing tactics?
1) Great content
2) Speak at conferences
3) Charity (Not because it's going to pay you back, but because people love the things you're passionate about)
I think the best promotion/marketing advice I can give you is to be passionate about what you do and represent that passion with class. That's the ticket to success, in any walk of life :).
TL;DR: Content Marketing + Syndication. People will buy your SaaS when it solves a problem you yourself experience daily.