We studied the top 10 SAAS startups and found these amazing growth hacking strategies
By: Madhan Raj
Tags: Dropbox, Growth Marketing, Growth Strategy, Growth Hacking

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Growth hacking strategies imply a method or technique used by the SaaS based setups to get more and more users for their businesses with very less investment.

These strategies should be the one which not only provides the instant results but also helps these businesses to grow continuously in the long run. If we have to phrase the thing in simple words, it means as “sow less and harvest more that too for a long time.” T

These growth hacks have replaced the traditional modes of advertising with its more inventive or innovative as well as low budget ‘hacks.’

Today we are going to discuss the list of growth hacks used by various SaaS business and has attained a high level of success in their growth.

Dropbox

Dropbox is also one of the most recent growing SaaS Setups which has now having a worth of over 10 billion dollars. And they did a very little marketing for their brand.

Growth hack strategy used: an incentive for referring a friend hack

Dropbox takes up the most classic marketing growth hack which is to get more customers through the existing ones. They have started a referral program.

Dropbox offers the gobs of extra storage space for its existing customer if they refer it to their friends and on every friend they bring on board, they receive an incentive of extra storage.

The hack worked for the business as they also increase the rewards as the customer will refer more people. They also upped the market by putting a message of “Refer a Friend” everywhere.

The hacked worked so well for the company and now the Dropbox is used as a synonym for the cloud-based storage.

Intercom

Intercom is also one of the SaaS business of providing the customer messaging app, who speeds up its growth by implementing the growth hack strategies. Now the company has 17,000+ paying customers and an ARR of more than 50 million and also the investors like Mark Zuckerberg in their list.

Growth hack strategy used: The SEO, Referral sites hack or “powered by” hack

Intercom has achieved such accelerated growth rate through SEO and, in particular, examining its referrals. Intercom has used a “powered by” statement on all its referral sites. They also power the chat service of the referral sites. After the chat popups, and when the user will click on the link that will take them to the landing page of the Intercom. AS they have combined the keyword on the headline on their personalized homepage for those referral sites they use.

Though this way, they make use of their top referral sites for attracting more traffic to themselves, and once the user clicks up the same, then it ends up on the company’s landing page. At last, all those visitors are greeted with dynamic keywords, and engaging headlines hacks so to develop the chances of converting the site visitors into the active leads.

Device Magic

Device Magic is the business that allows creating data collection forms for various phones and tablets.

Growth hack strategy used: Adding the explainer video and sliding images hack

As the company wants to boost their traffic rate from their homepage, so they have tested two hacks for the same:

1. By testing displaying an explainer video above the page fold along with some key bullet points that summaries the video features.

2. By testing the series of sliding images which will able to convey their company’s message to identify that which will work better than the others.

But whereas the explainer videos work for most of the SaaS businesses, but it also doesn’t assure that it will work for every company, in the same manner, it doesn’t work for the device magic also. And the other test of sliding the images results worked for the company and help in providing the significant signups for them as it increased by around 30%.

Slack

Slack is the business app based on providing the workplace messaging services; the business has also earned a title of fastest SaaS business ever. The company almost double its growth rate from the launch in 2012 and now is having a value of over 3 billion.

Growth hack strategy used: The Freemium model, twitter marketing and word of mouth hack.

The business has to find the ways to start implementing their idea of selling office messaging app. Slack has to compete with the already established brand in the same industry as Skype, which is most trusted by all. But the slack also finds ways to give the race to its growth.

Slack has created a need among its users for the app as by providing the quality products or services. As for marketing growth, Slack has used Twitter and word-of-mouth to hack its growth. And also offers freemium model hack where it allows users to sign up for their service for free and if they like the service and even if they want to get access the more features or more storage, they have to pay. So all these growth hacks have resulted in accelerated growth for Slack.

Walmart Canada

It is online shopping site of the Canadian division of Walmart having headquarter in Mississauga, Ontario.

Growth hack strategy used: Implementing the responsive web design hack

The company boosts its traffic rate by almost 20% after implementing the responsive web design.

Walmart starts by investing more time to research and have found that they were getting more traffic from the mobile users as knowing the fact that their site is not so mobile friendly.

So they have tracked the data of their users as:

- Which browsers have been used by most of the users?

- The screen size mostly used

And on the basis of the above data details, they have decided to use a scaling grid in its new design so to ensures that it should better and right on all the platforms. Hence, there growth suddenly boosts up to 20% after the conversion of their design and help in getting more traffic to the business.

Gmail

Gmail is a name which we all know is one of the most used email services. It began with a search feature which was far way better than any other primary email services providers. At first when Google has launched Gmail in the year 2004, then everyone was using other email services like Yahoo, etc. And for increasing the traffic to Gmail, they have used the following hack.

Growth hack strategy used: Scarcity growth hack.

Google has turned their major problem of limited server space ability into an advantage. Google has created a benefit out of scarcity. As when the same was launched, it was only be registered with an invitation only, and in the same manner, it was started with around 1,000 influencers who all were able to refer it to their friends. And this scarcity created an impression on the user’s mind that Gmail is one the most exclusive mail service provider and when the one will become its part. They will also be able to join the premium club of Gmail membership.

This hack worked so well for the Gmail that there is no doubt if we say that now Gmail is one of the widely used email services which is used by the most of the people around the globe.

Uber

Uber, started in year 2009 as a small local service and has now become the part of the billion dollar valuation brand club. It continues to amaze the industry and also double its growth rate every year by using some of the growth hacks.

Growth hack strategy used: Content repost hack, referral program and word of mouth or Testimonials hacks

Uber fixes the problem of cab renting at one click and makes it so easy and accessible for all. They have invented a new form of transportation method. They have used the hacks like word of mouth or testimonials which helps every new user to get the uber service. Word of mouth is still one of the old marketing hacks in the world, as Uber offers free rides to the people who will share their experience on their site which helps in attracting more users for them.

Uber has also used the content repost hack on which they started marketing their services by sending emails campaigns to the list of all subscribers with the new offers and exciting deals article. They also start sharing their article on the social media platforms after the emails are sent to their subscribers. As all such hacks helped uber to raise their standard of growth continuously, as they have also become the no. One cab servicer provider in the world.

Evernote

Evernote is the site which is a note-taker, organizer and is the “second brain,” for its users. The company was about of close when all its investor backed out. But this is one the business which inspires all the businesses through its revival from the scratch as now the business has a valuation of more than 1 billion dollars. The story of Evernote success is based on their growth hacks which they have used.

Growth hack strategy used: The Freemium model hack

Evernote has hacked its growth by implementing the most trusted and classical growth hack which is free trails. As whenever the business offers a product for free, it helps in engaging more users to the site. And on the basis of the product and its usage and benefits to the users, the free trails will be converted into the paid ones. And that where the business started gaining the presence in the user’s mind and becomes an essential part of their lives. The hack of the freemium model with word of mouth still works for the Evernote today also.

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a SaaS company that promotes marketers to analyze the user behavior on its sites. The software used by them provides heat maps that show about where the users are clicking on a web page so that they can improve the UX and boost its conversion rates. They also continually runs CRO tests, and also adds an explainer video to its homepage which engages more users.

Growth hack strategy used: video content hack

Videos help to communicate the brand message and value propositions in an engaging, visual way which is not possible with simple texts. Adding the simple video help boosting the value of the company by 64% with around a 21000 dollar addition in their monthly revenues.

PayPal

PayPal is a financial SaaS business which has emerged as one of the trusted and useful app wallet by utilizing the growth hacking technique.

Growth hack strategy used: Refer a friend hack

When PayPal started, they offer the $10 to every existing user for referring it to their friend. And this is one of the most lucrative offers as who don’t want to earn money that too without doing much or putting any hard efforts. As this growth hack is one of the most successful hacks for the PayPal as they have now create their market and becomes one of the continuously growing business.

So therefore, all above are few of the SaaS business examples, which have been growing gradually through the use of the growth hacking strategies. Growth hacking isn’t all about following the set rules or replicating different organizations. The process of growth hacking includes experimentation over the various advertising channels and item advancement so that to locate the most proficient and practical strategies for business improvement. It is also a technique which is usually related to the term of smart marketing and forward-thinking business. SaaS growth hacking allows to provides scope to the creative minds, developers and marketers so to achieve the incredible heights of growth through the experimentation strategies. Hence, develop the best growth hack according to your set up and attain continues growth for yourself.