Introduction
Recap on the year
2022 has been nothing short of a roller coaster for SaaS companies. Multiples have compressed, profitability is now favored over growth, and generative AI has become the new mainstream hype.
But what continues to remain constant is the need for impactful information. Thousands of articles were published this year, and SaaS Weekly has helped you surface the best of them.
We’ve curated over 200 articles for B2B SaaS founders throughout 2022. Helping them to filter out the signal from the noise.
In this article, we review the few pieces of content that stood out this year.
But I know what you are thinking: “aren’t there enough 2022 recaps already.” So why should you read this one?
Our unique perspective
It boils down to our core philosophy. We’re not in the business of bringing you news, we’re in the business of guiding your growth.
We’re not in the business of bringing you news…
We’re in the business of guiding your growth.
As a result, the content we curate is focused on one goal: informing your next growth strategy. We separate the clickbait titles and the breaking news headlines from the quality content that helps you answer your most pressing questions.
Whether you’re a SaaS founder, the head of a department, or an investor, we deliver resources to make you successful in your role.
So as we close the chapter on 2022 and sharpen our pencils to write next year’s, here are the best 2022 SaaS reads that were clicked on the most by our subscribers.
Offering free products with a marketing intent in mind is at the heart of Similarweb’s growth strategy. The company uses ungated free tools as both a branding and SEO play to drive new top-of-funnel activity. In addition, the company's goal is to understand who the users are and what they’re looking to solve. This helps Similarweb to better route prospects to specific offerings.
Similarweb personalizes the onboarding journey and automatically opts users into a seven-day free trial to drive customer conversions. Once a user signs up, they are prompted with specific product features based on the information they provide. They are also hooked on advanced capabilities that are removed if they don’t convert after the trial period.
Article by: Kyle Poyar at Openview Labs
The best SaaS demos balance between diagnosing a prospect’s pain and prescribing a solution. During the call, a sales rep should speak less than 45% of the time and should adapt their dialogue to the prospect’s situation. Researching the prospect beforehand is the best way to tailor the conversation and avoid asking easy to find questions.
There are two types of questions to ask during the demo 1) those to understand how the prospect operates and 2) those that uncover their dissatisfaction. Sales reps can then present the product in a way that addresses their pains. The last step is to have the prospect commit to next steps that they own to ensure no momentum is lost after the demo.
Article by: Armando Nabas at Kalungi Blog
Customer onboarding is a critical component of any SaaS company’s go-to-market motion. This period has a strong influence on whether or not your customers renew in their next cycle. You may have sold them on your product, but they are not yet committed to staying.
For Sprout Social, crafting a successful onboarding experience started with a high-touch approach. The company engaged in one-to-one onboarding sessions with its customers to start. Learning what processes and metrics were important to them. Then created templatized webinars around the interactions that sped up the time-to-value for their new customers.
Article by: By Shareil Nariman at ProductLed
To achieve an efficient growth rate, B2B SaaS companies should double down on reducing their Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and increasing their Net Dollar Retention (NDR). At the top of the funnel, companies can leverage reverse trails in a PLG sales motion to keep their acquisition cost low. By allowing users to try premium features during the trial, companies can maximize the upfront value for users and increase the likelihood they will convert through usage paywalls.
In addition, the first step to increasing NDR is to reduce churn. Companies can use personalized messaging and reactive discounting to save at-risk customers. At the same time, companies should be targeting healthier customers to create expansion opportunities through upsells, upgrades, or cross-sells.
Article by: Kyle Poyar at Openview Labs
Successful blog posts have more than just a compelling header to capture your audience’s attention. It must hook a reader with an intro that describes 1) who it’s for, 2) what they'll get out of it, and 3) why they should care.
The reader should be able to scan each section and highlight the key points without reading the entire text. Use listicles and featured snippets to create scannable sections for your reader. Then add visually rich elements to keep your audience engaged as they work through the entire post.
Article by: Martina Bretous at HubSpot
When competing in a saturated market, product differentiation is not enough to attract new customers. SaaS companies must rely on organic content, strong branding, and a vibrant community to drive new growth. For Miro, a visual collaboration platform, the company built its moat by creating an extensive content library around its product.
Similar to how SaaS companies like Stripe and MongoDB use API documentation as an extension of their product, Miro uses product content to improve the overall customer experience. The company has thousands of blog posts, templates, and detailed use cases that customers and non-customers can reference. This strategy is also used by notable companies like Notion and ClickUp, who use content to consistently expand their product’s use case.
Article by: Ethan Crump at Foundation
An operating plan is a way for the management team to communicate the performance of the business to the board. A proper plan can be presented in just two slides: one slide showing the ARR growth and related metrics (also called a walkforward) and one slide showing the line items on the P&L.
When presenting the operating plan to the board, be sure to provide both strategic and financial context. Communicate the thought process behind the numbers, not just the numbers themselves. Instead of simply reading off the metrics, overlay what strategies and considerations drove the company's performance and how you will hit the forecasted numbers.
Article by: 1. Dave Kellogg @ Kellblog
The “Rule of 40” is a quick way to determine the health and attractiveness of a SaaS company. It’s a metric that balances the tradeoff between revenue growth and profitability. Many founders and investors use the metric to benchmark their business against other companies in the industry or against those in their portfolio.
To calculate the metric, you take the growth rate of your recurring revenue and add it to your company’s profit margin. Typically, the EBITDA margin is used as the profitability input since it's used as a proxy for cash flow. For example, a company with an ARR growth rate of 14% and an EBTIDA margin of 32% would have a 46% Rule of 40.
Article by: Ben Murray @ The SaaS CFO
Customer Success teams (CSMs) play a large part in driving efficient growth for SaaS companies. Not only do they ensure customers are receiving the most value from the product, but they also bring in new revenue through upsells. As a result, companies should adopt a cross-functional framework between Post-sales and the Product team to ensure CSMs can be efficient growth enablers.
The starting point is to install a neutral leader who advocates for both teams. The leader should prioritize a limited number of joint projects that meet the needs of all stakeholders. These projects should streamline the collaboration between the two teams and ultimately should drive additional value to customers.
Article by: 1. Kellie Capote at Gainsight Software
There are many differences between vertical and horizontal-SaaS companies. The most notable differences are: vertical SaaS companies have smaller TAMs, higher knowledge barriers, and fewer keywords to rank on. As a result, the standard go-to marking playbook needs to be modified.
For SimpleLegal, a management system for in-house legal teams, that meant taking a systematic approach to drive traffic to its site through content refreshing. Instead of continuously creating new articles to publish, Simplelegal focused on updating existing content and re-promoting it throughout its channels. By refreshing content with new data and secondary keywords, SimpleLegal ensured it always had content to rank on and promote.
Article by: Ryan Law at Animalz
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