The way customers indulge in business with a SaaS Startup is different from the way they get into business with any other business.

And it is for this reason why SaaS businesses have a hard time carving out the plan for customer-acquisition even before they have established their startup and sought funding for the same.

Because until and unless you don't have a plan to acquire a customer; a blueprint that you feel will work universally across all customers there is kind of no point in getting things rolling.

In this guide, I have explained X different lead generation tactics that I have observed time and again running for different sets of SaaS startups.

1. Set goals that are S.M.A.R.T

This first step is a rather important one when you think about a SaaS Startup, you need to put our guesswork out of the equation altogether.

S.M.A.R.T goals stand for goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Oftentimes SaaS Startup founders are over-ambitious and aggressive about realizing the goals and as a result, the route they take for goal realization is the opposite of S.M.A.R.T goals.

As a beginning step, you need to set goals that are specific; in the beginning, you need to focus on one thing it could be something as simple as creating, analyzing, and testing your buyer personas in real-time; instead of going after 10 different things.

Whatever is it that you are going after has to be measurable in quantifiable terms; believe me, this helps a great deal with feedback solicitation. If your goal isn't attainable, to begin with then doing it doesn't make sense.

Take feedback on everyone in the team entrusted with the execution if they don't feel it's attainable then it's time to reassess the goal.

And lastly, of course, the goal has to be realistic and time-bound; if it isn't time-bound then there is no telling how long across time it will be stretched wasting everybody's time.

2. Have a clear Buyer Persona

Buyer Persona in a SaaS Startup plays a pivotal role because a SaaS product more often than not caters to the B2B Audience who have the very specific quintessential needs with a prospective SaaS Product.

As a SaaS startup, you need to hit that exact sweet spot.

Arriving at that requires you to create the buyer persona in such a way, this means not just vehemently relying on your team for ideation but rather getting your hands dirty, going out in the market for primary customer research. This will get you a step closer to creating the buyer persona that fits the description just fine.

For example, a cost-effective SEO SaaS tool's buyer persona could be a person who is an SEO practitioner; who is either working SEO on his own independent project or taking small projects as a freelance SEO; he/she owns a budget laptop and can be found across the cafeteria working on a laptop.

This is just an example of how you will carve a buyer persona you will have to carve a dozen of such buyer personas.

3. SEO is a necessity for a SaaS Startup

You don't just generate leads for a SaaS Startup without leveraging Search Engine Optimization. Here is the deal with SEO, SEO is an organic process when your customers find you without being under the influence of a paid advertisement they are more likely to consider your product.

And this is more true for a SaaS product that is thriving in a competitive space or rather in a one of the kind space.

SEO would be the quickest way to earn their trust in the first go.

Your SEO strategy for the SaaS Startup needs to address how you are going to rank product landing pages for its industry-oriented search queries, how you are going to rank the blogs that offer solutions to customer's pain points as well as plug your product as a solution to their problem.

4. Blogging is a serious thing for SaaS

When we think of SEO one thing that stands out and works for various industries is blogging. Blogging is a fun way of educating your prospects and pushing them down the funnel from awareness to consideration to ultimately purchase decisions.

This even works for e-commerce and Local Businesses.

But for SaaS, the lead generation more or less depends on blogging.

There are various pain-points associated with a SaaS product and moreover the solution that it brings to the table.

Now how do you address that if not with a blog? 

Let me ask you this question, when did you first discover HubSpotor Wordstream? Was it not because of their blog?

I bet it was.

With a blog, you can connect your SaaS product from various angles and explain to your prospects why your product is a go-to option to save themselves from the pain they are experiencing in the absence of your product.

Every SaaS blog carries several CTAs in the blog post which helps generate leads and get prospects in the pipeline.