#66 - Write your SaaS Growth

{Cold Outreach + List Building}?

Oct 28, 2023

Welcome 361 SaaS Founders, Tech Entrepreneurs, and Marketers to the 66th edition of Write your SaaS Growth Newsletter:

In this edition, we discuss:

Ads: 7 steps to structure your SaaS Google Ads
Cold Email: 4 cold email basics for your SaaS outreach strategy
Email Marketing: Building a SaaS email list with cold outreach campaign?
SEO: 5-point SEO checklist to rank your SaaS
Social Media Marketing: 4-steps guide to grow on X as a SaaS founder

Let’s GO!

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Ads 📈

7 steps to structure your Google ad campaigns:

While Facebook ads can generate demand for your SaaS, Google Ads captures your SaaS demand through intent.

Luke shares how to Structure Your Google Search Ad Campaigns. If done right, your Google search ads will print. Google ads are:

High-intent
Insane visibility
Performance-based.

Let's start.

Segment Your Keywords Start by separate campaigns by different categories. You want to separate by goal. i.e., a separate campaign for branded keywords. And a separate campaign for prospecting (broader) keywords. Proper keyword segmentation optimizes your budget allocations. And better target specific user intent. This gives you more predictability and efficiency in the long run.
Adjust Bidding Strategy: For branded campaigns, a lower CPA might suffice. But broader keywords usually result in a higher CPA. Adjust your bids based on keyword significance. You want to invest more in high-converting keywords and optimize for cost-effectiveness.
Establish Ad Groups by Themes Themed ad groups: Maintain consistency, Improve user experience, and enhance ad relevance This strengthens your campaigns. And naming ad groups based on themes such as "summer shoes" or "winter boots" can guide your ad creation.
Use Phrase Match Keywords: A phrase match for "red sneakers" will trigger ads for searches like "buy red sneakers." Phrase match keywords balance reach and relevance. But don't forget to add a few broad-match keywords to help you find new high-performing keywords.
Have Multiple Ads: Design and include at least two different ads for each ad group. This will allow you to A/B test to improve your established ad groups.
Direct Traffic to the Relevant Page: Link your ads to relevant pages in your store. An ad about "green shoes" should lead directly to a page showcasing green shoes. Try to avoid the homepage. You'll reduce bounce rates and improve conversions.
Stay Specific: Lastly, avoid broad categories for themed keywords. Specificity improves ad targeting. Make sure your campaign structure aligns closely with user intent.

Master each part of this and you'll have a strong foundation for visibility and reach.

Cold Email 📈

4 basics to bring leads to your SaaS with cold emails.

Make your cold email campaigns simple:

Nick says all cold email sequences should be 4 steps.

Email 1 - Offer + Value
Email 2 - Follow-up + Value/Sales Asset
Email 3 - Follow-up + Value/Sales Asset
Email 4 - Break-up

No need to complicate what works.

Relevance > Personalisation

Chris asks if people care you made a compliment on their LinkedIn? Or would they care more that you've created an email that is relevant with:

Offer
Case Study
Value
CTA
Proof

Most would prefer something that will genuinely help them!

What really matters for a cold email campaign?

2,500 leads. Scraped + verified.
10 inboxes, 35 emails per day per inbox.
You can't tell me that wouldn't book 15+ meetings in a month.

Nick says Cold email isn't the issue. Your offer, positioning, and lack of social proof are.

Are you sending your campaigns to a qualified list?

Maggie says before sending that cold dm or cold email; You need to qualify your prospect.

Is this service relevant to this person?
Can they afford to pay for this service?

Qualifying your prospect increases your conversion rates immensely.

Email Marketing 📈

Scale your lead emails with a lead magnet powered by cold email campaign.

Christian shares a strategy that you can deploy to get leads of your ICP:

An effective lead magnet can be a game changer for your cold email campaigns. We've seen it running internal outreach here at ListKit...
We went from pitching demos, videos, and "sending more info" in our cold emails, to pitching 50 free leads. Wanna know what happened to our reply rates? They skyrocketed.
It makes so much sense, and I'm not sure why we hadn't thought of it sooner. We're selling data, and what better way to get people interested in our data than giving out a free sample of it?
With the right lead magnet, you can start booking meetings from cold email on demand...

Here's how to create a strong lead magnet for your cold email campaigns:

Break down your product or service. Figure out which aspects of your business can be offered as a sample to entice prospects to book a meeting with you. A great example would be an email marketing agency... Your service is valuable because of the emails you're sending... So offer a sample email flow for free over cold email! "Hey, Opted into your email newsletter and noticed a few things with your welcome flow that might be hurting your conversions. I redesigned it to be optimized for more conversions, mind if I send it here?" Who isn't saying yes to that?
Once you get a prospect to say "Yes!" to your lead magnet, blow them away with the sample you make for them. Make it so good to the point where the prospect won't believe you sent it to them for free. The rest will be easy from there!
Where most people go wrong with their lead magnet, is they assume the person on the other end of the email ALREADY respects and trusts them. I've seen people pitch a "free ad account audit" over cold email... Guess what? No one is giving access to their ad account to a total stranger. They don't trust you yet. So, you can earn their trust by reframing your lead magnet: "Would you like to see a video breaking down your Facebook ad creatives and how they can be optimized for more conversions?"
Now, all the prospect has to do is say yes, and they'll get a video breaking down their ads. Record a value-packed video for them, and all of a sudden, you have their trust. If your cold email campaigns are underperforming, pitch a lead magnet in your Call-to-Action and watch your reply rates skyrocket!

While this works great for a service business, how do you deploy this strategy for a SaaS? It’s always about the value your SaaS brings. A lead magnet which explains all the advantages or benefits your SaaS brings like a case study for your ICP is a great method to deploy this strategy and get the sales rolling.

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SEO 📈

5-point SEO checklist for getting my clients to rank CONSISTENTLY.

Nick says do these 5 things right, and it’s guaranteed you’ll skyrocket your traffic:

Targeting low-difficulty keywords
Filtering by category first
Using content outlines
Focusing on content velocity
Link-building

Let’s dive in:

Targeting low-difficulty keywords: This is pretty easy but it’s important you do it right with the filtering method below. Many people go for super long-tail keywords here. Yes, you might rank fast that way. But if your topics are TOO long-tail, you’ll get no traffic. Instead, you should:
1. Pick a seed keyword
2. Set difficulty filters from 0-20
3. Then, 20-40 - And so on, until you’ve exhausted all relevant keywords Target ones with good difficulty/volume mix first.
Filter by category first Here’s how this works:
1. Decide on cluster topic
2. Go after low-difficulty keywords
3. Move to another cluster once you gain some traction
This is a great way to build authority cluster-by-cluster, going after low-difficulty keywords first. Then, as you’re focusing on one specific cluster, you gain more interlinking opportunities within that category. Making it even more likely for you to rank.
Using content outlines When working with writers, we ALWAYS give them outlines on what to write about. If you just give writers keywords to write about, it’s VERY likely they’ll approach it how they want. In reality, they should always approach with search intent in mind... For example, if you give the keyword ‘LinkedIn automation’ to a writer, they might be tempted to write an article along the lines of “What Is LinkedIn Automation And How Does It Work?” This would NOT rank. Why? Because the search intent is commercial…So, when creating content outlines, you also need to cover:
1. Gaps other articles are missing out on
2. Exact H2 and H3s
3. How to give value
4. Secondary keywords
5. SEO checklist… and more
Content velocity Ideally, you should focus on content velocity to cover your first topic category ASAP. While you should always be creating the highest quality content for your users… There is also power in knowing where you stand against your competitors.
1. If you’re a brand new website, with 3 other blog posts about medicine… And you’re competing against Healthline for the same keyword - you probably won’t rank. Even if you create the single BEST article on meditation.
2. That’s because of topical authority. If they have over 5,000 ranking articles on therapy, Google can tell they’re a reliable source for the topic. Meanwhile, if you have only a few posts, Google doesn’t even know you… So, you should start with low-difficulty, long-tail first.
3. Then, the more you publish, the bigger authority (and audience, traffic, and backlinks) you establish. If site A is creating 2x high-quality content a week and site B is creating 5x that - it’s clear that site B will win. Doing things in large quantities isn't always bad if they are done correctly. That’s quality AND quantity.
Start link-building. Do you need links to succeed? Not really, no. Can they help skyrocket your traffic? YES! Which is why this step is so important. Especially if you’re in a competitive niche. When everyone can create high-quality content, Google has to decide between articles A and B somehow. If they’re both super valuable, engaging, and authoritative, what do you look at? That’s right, backlinks. And this is something many people struggle with. Because, you need to figure out:
1. How many links you need to rank:
2. Which links are quality
3. Where to land quality backlinks

Social Media Marketing 📈

4 steps to grow on X.

Yannick says it's easy to beat the algorithm I use these 4 easy tactics (with examples).

Post long-form content If you have 𝕏 Pro, post as many long posts as you can. The 'show more' text makes more people click and gives you a boost. And if the post is engaging enough, people will stay.
2 easy hacks to unlock 'show more':
1. Add spaces
2. Make the post more than 10 lines (add blank lines)
Post more videos. Elon is pushing more video content. Videos have the power to keep people glued to the screen. If you can create good videos or have some really engaging videos: Post them!
1. All In Podcast has just reposted the podcast and got 2.5M views.
2. Even simple animation videos work well.
Post more threads: If you don't have 𝕏 Pro (Twitter Blue) yet, threads work best for you. We all know the power of threads and they keep people engaged for long. Aim to post around 2-3 threads a week. What threads should you post?
1. Your transformation
2. A case study
3. Your business processes
4. Interesting stories
5. Your recent experience
6. Curation of resources
Post engage-worthy content It's easier than you think: You don't need to do all the work. You can just post a simple question and let people answer it. When people scroll through your comments, that time spent also benefits you. Let people dig into your comments and clock in the time. The questions should be:
1. Dumb (so anyone can answer)
2. Open-ended (so you get variety of replies)

How can we help each other? 🥅

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Thanks for reading! SaaSwrites is a humble attempt to help SaaS founders and marketers grow their SaaS.

See you next Saturday.

Ricky,

SaaSwrites

P.S. If you liked this edition, it would mean the world to us if you share it with your friends. :) Thank you in advance!

Write your SaaS Growth