Are you looking for tried and tested ways to get more SaaS leads?

Without a doubt, if you want your SaaS business to be a success, you have to generate leads consistently.

But, there are tons of SaaS lead generation ideas out there, making it difficult to find the best strategies for your SaaS business.

In this post, we’re going to share 15 proven lead generation ideas for SaaS you can implement right away. First, though, let’s get clear on what SaaS lead generation is and why it matters.

What Is SaaS Lead Generation?

SaaS (“software as a service”) lead generation refers to how SaaS companies go about finding potential customers. And every SaaS business knows that it needs a lead generation strategy for growth.

This is particularly true for tech companies that work with monthly memberships. These pricing models are great for users but tend to increase “churn rates” for the business.

Churn rates refer to the number of people who cancel their monthly or yearly subscriptions. And as a SaaS company, you can bet that a certain percentage of your customers will leave your business each month.

So, you need a steady stream of new leads to take their spot and add to your existing customer base.

This is where a solid SaaS lead generation strategy comes in.

You can create your own strategy by attracting people to your website, webinars, and social media accounts. And once you have your prospect’s attention, you need to convince them to share their contact information with you.

So, how do you generate SaaS leads?

Let’s take a closer look.

15 Ideas to Get More SaaS Leads

Below, we’ll cover the 15 best lead generation ideas for SaaS companies.

For many of these tips, we’ll be using OptinMonster:

OptinMonster is the best tool for growing your SaaS leads exponentially. With OptinMonster, you can easily create eye-catching popups and other lead generation forms with a drag and drop builder.

Plus, it comes with stunning prebuilt templates to save you hours of time, energy, and frustration in the campaign design process. And with its drag and drop builder, OptinMonster requires zero coding experience or “tech skills” to get started.

When your professional campaign is built, you can configure display rules to target the right customers at just the right time in their customer journey.

This brings in more leads for your SaaS company and, ultimately, a boost to your bottom line.

Want to see it in action for yourself? Click below to start your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account:

Optimize Your SaaS Lead Generation Strategy Today! 

Now, let’s turn our attention to 15 SaaS lead generation strategies you can start using right now.

1. Use Retargeting to Personalize Special Offers

Retargeting is one of the best ways to get SaaS leads.

That’s because you’re using the information you already have about your site visitors. And with that data, you can create personalized messages.

We know these messages are often far more effective than generic pitches. One research report found eCommerce companies that get personalization right can bump their revenue by 15%.

So just imagine what personalized promotions can do for your SaaS business.

Now, let’s look at how retargeting can improve your SaaS lead generation efforts.

Let’s say someone is a returning visitor to your site. Using behavioral retargeting, you can welcome them back with a special offer.

Another technique is to use cookie retargeting. This will allow you to create targeted promotions and upsells for customers who have already opted into your email list.

You can then build personalized promotions based on your customer’s age, gender, location, and more.

Depending on your email marketing software, you can also show targeted popups based on where someone is in your funnel.

2. Find Your Best SaaS Lead Sources with Referrer Detection

Are you using guest blogging and influencer marketing to get more SaaS leads?

With guest blogging, you can improve your search rankings and drive more traffic to your site.

And partnering with the right influencers is a great way to grab attention in your target community.

But, are you making the most of the traffic you’re getting?

Referrer detection is a great tactic to create specific SaaS marketing messages. It allows you to greet visitors coming from guest blogging or influencer marketing campaigns.

Using OptinMonster, you can show popups to visitors who have been referred to your site from specific traffic sources.

You can also show specific messages to people who reach your site through social media.

This added layer of customization is great for grabbing your audience’s attention and increasing sitewide conversions.

3. Segment Your Website Visitors With Lead Magnets

What if you could learn more about your website visitors while generating leads?

The good news is you can use lead magnets to segment your site visitors. A lead magnet is something you offer to someone in exchange for their email address. Examples include an eBook, checklist, or guide.

RocketBots, a SaaS company, used this strategy to rapidly increase their email list.

Here’s how they did it:

RocketBots has a webpage describing the integration between Rocketbots and DialogFlow. They displayed a popup on that page that offered a lead magnet about that integration. This gave them the information they needed to build an email marketing campaign for those visitors specifically.

Using the same strategy, you can get more leads by making compelling offers your targeted audience will love.

4. Create Helpful Content

Creating compelling content that your audience truly cares about is a proven way to get more SaaS leads.

Content marketing is the process of publishing content that helps your audience solve a problem. The right kind of content can establish a lasting relationship between you and your potential customer.

That’s why many SaaS companies continue to invest in their content marketing strategies.

Valuable content is a great idea for SaaS lead generation because people will start to know and trust your brand. Plus, if the content is worth sharing, they’ll amplify your content.

And, in turn, you’ll reach even more people.

Bulkly used content to increase the number of people who signed up for free trials. They offered site visitors a 6-part email course on creating evergreen social media content.

The content was directed to Bulkly’s ideal customer: people who want to share evergreen social media content. As a result, many of the course users went on to start a free trial.

6. Leverage the Zeigarnik Effect

Wish people were more eager to join your email list?

2-step forms might be just what you need to create anticipation for your email list.

This technique is based on something called the Zeigarnik effect. The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological concept that says people who start an action are more likely to finish it.

With a 2-step optin form, you can get people to start the sign-up process with a simple Yes/No question or by making a link trigger your campaign.

With OptinMonster, you can easily create 2-step optins using Yes/No forms and Monsterlinks.

Stays.net boosted monthly sales by 10% using MonsterLinks. A MonsterLink turns any image or link into a 2-step optin.

By using 2-step optins and MonsterLinks™, you can successfully leverage the Zeigarnik effect and engage more leads.

7. Craft Compelling CTAs

A call to action is a word or phrase that encourages people to take a specific step. A convincing call to action can get people to:

• Sign up for your email list
• Start a free trial
• Share your content on social media
• Buy your product

But, how do you create the perfect call to action? Try these tips:

• Use action words that describe exactly what people need to do
• Focus on the value of clicking on the call to action
• Encourage curiosity

For more information, check out this resource for crafting a great call to action: How to Create the Perfect Call to Action (11 Examples)

Why are CTAs so important? Once your new leads visit your website, you should make it crystal clear what you want them to do next.

CTAs concentrate your audience’s attention where you want it, so you can get them to take the actions you want them to.

8. Display Social Proof

Social proof is one of the most powerful tools for getting more SaaS leads.

It’s based on a proven concept in consumer behavior that we follow others when we’re not sure what to do.

Imagine you’re in the market for a new phone. What steps would you take before pulling out your credit card? Chances are you’d read a few reviews before making a purchase.

Seeing that other people had positive experiences with the phone makes you more confident buying it yourself.

You can use the same psychological hack with social proof.

One way to display social proof on your website is with real-time notifications. Using real-time notifications, you can show your visitors how other people are engaging with your site and content.

A tool like TrustPulse makes it easy to add social proof to your website.

TrustPulse shows a new notification each time someones takes a positive action on your site. So, you could show every time someone:

• Starts a trial
• Signs up for a demo
• Joins your mailing list
• Makes a purchase

These notifications send the right kind of signals to your site visitors. They see other people visiting your website and enjoying your SaaS product.

As a result, you build more credibility with your target audience and can get more leads for your SaaS company.

9. Use Live Chat

Live chat is becoming more and more popular. And it’s easy to see why.

Your site visitors can easily reach out to you with any questions or concerns. And they can get a response right away.

Live chat software allows you to offer live chat easily. By adding just a few lines of code, you can have chat support running in minutes.

One of the best services for adding a chatbot to your website is LiveChat:

LiveChat makes it incredibly easy to add a chat feature to your website. It also integrates natively with OptinMonster.

That means you can add a chatbot to your optin campaigns. Why would you do this?

To get more people to engage with your live chat feature.

By combining the power of OptinMonster’s targeting rules with LiveChat’s support bot, you can make sure all of your visitors’ questions are answered.

This initial form of engagement is a great way to transform casual visitors into warm leads.

10. Use Interactive Content (Surveys/Quizzes)

An easy way to get more engagement is to use interactive content like surveys and quizzes.

So, how does this help you get more SaaS leads?

You can easily learn about your site visitor’s preferences and more using surveys and quizzes. For more information, check out this article: Survey Best Practices: Everything You Need to Know (2020).

Once you get that valuable feedback, you can use the data to improve your:

• Email copy
• Optin campaigns
• Content strategy
• Landing pages

And much more. When you know more about what your customers like and how they speak, it’s easier to build a connection with them.

From there, you can gather more SaaS leads.

11. Get More Product Integrations

You can partner with other products to get more SaaS leads.

Focus on complementary products that will promote your integration.

This may take a bit of time at first, but it can do wonders for your lead generation strategy.

By finding partners in your niche (that aren’t direct competitors), you can get more exposure for your brand and find new leads for your SaaS business.

12. Offer a Free Trial

Free trials are key for growing your SaaS business.

Once people sign up for a free trial, they have an opportunity to see whether or not your SaaS product meets their needs.

There are a few ways to increase trial signups:

• Improve your content marketing strategy
• Make sign-ups more simple
• Create a compelling landing page

Of course, the goal is to turn your free trial users into paid subscribers. For more information on how to do that, you might want to check out the following article: How to Design a Free Trial Marketing Strategy that Converts.

13. Host Webinars

A webinar is an online seminar to connect with potential customers and promote your SaaS business.

You can use your webinar to:

• Demonstrate your SaaS product
• Showcase your expertise
• Expand on popular content
• And more…

Webinars are traditionally one of the best digital marketing tools at your disposal. But how do you get people to show up in the first place?

OptinMonster makes it easy to boost your webinar registrations. You do this by showing targeted optin campaigns to your site’s traffic to increase sign-ups.

In fact, ChinaImportal used OptinMonster to increase webinar registrations by 18%.

You can use the same strategy to get more people on your webinars and more leads in your funnel.

14. Use Case Studies

Case studies are a powerful form of social proof. They show, in detail, how people have achieved results using your product.

The best case studies present your product as the best solution for your ideal customer’s problem. How do you get more case studies?

Offer special promotions to your current user base for anyone willing to participate. Though you may need to give discounts or other “freebies,” it will be well worth the investment.

Case studies can be added to your email campaigns, landing pages, and other marketing materials.

Plus, you can take quotes from the case studies for testimonials. Either way, you’ll have a strong form of social proof that can motivate customers to buy your product.

15. Run Ad Campaigns

Ad campaigns ensure your company’s message gets in front of your customers. And while paid ads can be one of your biggest lead-generating tools, they can also be one of your biggest budget wasters.

That’s because if you’re not targeting the right people with your ads, you might as well throw your money down the drain. One way to make sure that you’re targeting the right people is by retargeting visitors from your site.

You can add tracking pixels (small bits of code) from your paid ad platform to your website or optin campaigns. This tracking code is provided by major advertising platforms like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and more.

By injecting this code into your OptinMonster campaigns, you can track people who engaged with your brand. Then, your paid ad platform will know that these are good candidates for showing your paid ads.

When set up correctly, retargeting can be one of your best lead generation tools.

For more information on how this works, check out this article: Facebook Targeting Ads Made Simple.

Optimize Your SaaS Lead Generation Strategy Today! 

And that’s it! These have been 15 lead generation strategies for SaaS businesses. We hope you found this article useful.

If you’re interested in more lead generation resources, check out these articles:

• 38 Best Lead Generation Tools to Get More Targeted Leads
• Lead Generation Strategies Proven to Boost Your Reach
• 9 B2B Lead Generation Strategies That Actually Work

Are you ready to get more SaaS leads from your website? Sign up for your risk-free OptinMonster account today!