In my previous blogpost, I've mentioned that listing your SaaS product in SaaS directories is one of the most ROI positive growth hacks you can do.

But the real results come after you start boosting your presence at the directories. So don't just list your SaaS and wait. Follow the guide below to get significant lift in leads and trial signups.

With LiveAgent, following the steps below helped us to triple the MRR.

Building Social Proof 101

The following steps will cost you exactly $0.

Step #1
Reach out to your customers and gather reviews (for the directory listings). See, Social proof is super important, especially when your brand is not established yet. Gather as many reviews as possible. Reach out to your most loyal customers first, get 5–10 for each of the review websites and then send out bulk invites. (We noticed that customers were more likely to post reviews on profiles where there already had been reviews.)

Step #2
Get more reviews. Trust me, the more reviews you’ll get, the better. Try reaching out to the end users of your product, e.g. the users, agents, reps. (e.g. for 1 LiveAgent account, there can be 50+ users and each of them daily uses the software. Provide incentives for each reviewer. You can even partner up with some of the directories and they will manage that for you. We did $15 Amazon coupons and it worked perfectly well.

Step #3
Take all the reviews, scores and ratings and promote the hell out of them. Use them on your homepage, landing pages, pricing page, trial signup page.. Use them in your display ads, use them in your email signatures. Simply let customers know that “Yes, there are customers using us, and yes, they rated us 5-stars because our software helps them be more successful”.

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Forget about “Best selling software of 2018”. Your new USP should be “Most reviewed software of 2018”

(Trustpilot actually run a research on this and the second named outperformed the former by double digits).

Here’s an extra free tip:

Sign up your product profile to AlternativeTo. They get great search results for kewords like “Alternative to Your Competitor”. Build custom landing pages to send the traffic there. Build comparison websites.

Want another tip? Here you go

Now that you’ve gathered enough reviews and built up credibility, try googling “Best xy software” where XY=your type of software. (with LiveAgent, it would be “Best Help Desk Software”). Most of the first results are going to be the software directories mentioned above. There can also be Comparisons by bloggers or other websites - reach out to them to see if they would include you in these lists. If they do, you have earned yourself a very valuable placement and a backlink :) (This will be hardly achievable without having the social proof built up prior)

Paid growth marketing channels

Most of the software directories offer PPC advertising or Lead purchasing options. Try not to aim for the first positions - these tend to be too pricey (I suggest #3–#4). Try and track the leads from each of the directories. Some may perform better than others. Be smart about your money.

AdWords - “With software, the CPCs can be astronomical” - been there done that. Avoid generic keywords, try to shoot for long tail. Bid for lower positions. Try bidding on your competitors’ brand. See what their customers struggle with and use it in your Ad copy. Think lateral - try to impersonate the decision maker in your niche. What struggles can he have when googling? (e.g. a typical helpdesk manager would google: “how to motivate customer support representatives). These keywords won’t cost much and can bring really high quality leads.