When SaaS firms develop, they wish to develop quick.
However for each greenback you elevate from buyers, for each new developer you rent, and for each new beanbag chair you add to your fancy workplace loft—your advertising staff will get put underneath only a little bit extra strain. As a result of while you begin to scale up, everybody appears to the entrepreneurs in your staff to ship extra leads, extra demo requests, extra trial begins, extra paying prospects, extra, extra, extra.
(OK, so perhaps it’s a lot of strain.)
That’s why it’s essential for SaaS entrepreneurs to have the ability to construct and check campaigns rapidly to see what really works. It’s a technique that’s helped Thinkific, the #1 software program to create and promote your individual on-line programs, develop from a scrappy startup to an business chief in only a few years.
Right here’s what Andrea Merson, Senior Director of Advertising and Inventive at Thinkific, remembers about once they have been simply beginning to scale up.
I used to be with the corporate when there have been simply six of us. We had no design staff for advertising and actually restricted sources. Again then, we have been simply attempting to iterate rapidly to see what labored.
Since then, Thinkific has grown into an organization of over 100 staff and 40,000 prospects. And Andrea says they’re nonetheless ramping as much as change into even greater—over the following yr, Thinkific is on observe to double in measurement.
To drive all this development, their staff is operating some severely spectacular advertising campaigns. Listed here are only a few of the methods Thinkific has been capable of generate leads and develop the highest of their funnel utilizing Unbounce…
- In lower than two years, Thinkific revealed over 700 touchdown pages to drive greater than 150,000 (!!!) conversions.
- On one promotional marketing campaign alone, they have been capable of drive 600 new prospects to enroll in Thinkific Professional over simply two weeks (doubling their site visitors and conversion charges from the yr prior).
- They’ve been capable of hit 50% conversion charges on their webinar touchdown pages, even getting over 10,000 individuals to register and take part in a current on-line summit.
Wanna see how they did it? You’ll be able to hear from Andrea herself within the video under, or preserve studying to see among the actual marketing campaign examples that helped Thinkific develop like a dream SaaS enterprise.
Launch campaigns sooner. Construct high-converting Unbounce touchdown pages for trials, demos, and lead gen—all with out disrupting a single developer. Get began right now along with your free 14-day trial.
The Problem: How Do You Scale Your SaaS Firm and Develop Sooner?
It doesn’t matter what sort of SaaS firm you’re employed for—startup or scale-up—one of the simplest ways to continue to grow your small business is to maneuver quick and take a look at new issues. Andrea Merson can inform you from firsthand expertise that having an agile advertising staff is completely essential if you happen to’re within the strategy of scaling up.
I believe the toughest factor about being a SaaS marketer is that the panorama is at all times altering. And at each scale of development, you’re coping with completely different challenges … you at all times must be fast sufficient to have the ability to reply to what these modifications are.
Proper now, Andrea says the primary challenges at Thinkific are centered round launching new merchandise efficiently, breaking into new industries, and persevering with to develop the corporate.
However while you develop as a company, you’re additionally taking up one million extra duties and one million extra tasks. Proper now we’re on a trajectory to double in development. And that actually for us means getting out to a bigger viewers.
Presently, Andrea says they’re averaging one new rent each week—in order that they must be operating a TON of campaigns to maintain the highest of the advertising funnel full. (Like, just about on a regular basis.) And that’s precisely the place a software like Unbounce is useful.
The Answer: Three Methods Thinkific Makes use of Touchdown Pages to Gasoline Fast Progress
Over the past two years, Andrea and the staff have created over 700 touchdown pages. Listed here are among the alternative ways they’ve been in a position to make use of Unbounce to generate extra leads and fill their funnel sooner.
1. The Epic Again-to-Faculty Marketing campaign
For the final two years, the staff at Thinkific has run a “again to highschool” promotional marketing campaign with the objective of driving extra signups in early September. The marketing campaign promotes a bonus package deal of unique sources and instruments that new course creators (i.e., prospects) can use in the event that they join a Thinkific Professional plan.
We constructed a devoted touchdown web page particularly for the again to highschool marketing campaign. For this one, we went after a distinct segment section of our viewers who we knew was simply getting began. They already knew about on-line programs, however actually wanted some additional coaching.
However whereas this touchdown web page appears mighty spectacular, Andrea says it really didn’t eat up as a lot of their advertising sources as you would possibly assume. The venture supervisor who ran the marketing campaign (with the assistance of 1 in-house designer) had solely been with the corporate for a number of weeks.
She had no coding expertise and no design expertise. However—inside the first couple of hours—she was capable of actually rapidly soar into Unbounce and perceive tips on how to use the drag-and-drop builder to get the marketing campaign up and operating.
To drive site visitors to their touchdown web page, Thinkific used a mix of e-mail, PPC adverts, and an Unbounce sticky bar on their web site. They focused an viewers of people that have been desirous about turning into course creators—however wanted some assist to hit the bottom operating. The copy on the web page did a terrific job of getting inside their heads and talking their language.
We have been capable of craft messaging on that web page that spoke on to that viewers. And we used the Unbounce web page to have the ability to actually define precisely what’s going to be in that supply and permit individuals to see the worth.
Having run the “again to highschool” marketing campaign for 2 years in a row now, the staff at Thinkific was capable of iterate and optimize their touchdown web page this yr to see even higher outcomes. Andrea says they have been capable of drive twice as many signups for Thinkific Professional by constructing on what they discovered from final yr’s marketing campaign.
We doubled our conversion charges over final yr and we doubled our site visitors. On the finish of the day, we had 600 individuals declare the supply by way of Unbounce. And that’s as a result of we did much more work outlining our supply and actually diving into the worth.
2. The Assume in Shade On-line Summit
Thinkific additionally makes use of Unbounce touchdown pages to often host free webinars and digital summits. Andrea says this has been a key technique for them to not solely seize extra leads—but additionally develop their on-line group.
Lately, their staff produced a web-based summit known as “Assume in Shade” that was notably profitable.
We designed Assume in Shade to assist underrepresented ladies, particularly ladies of color, get the coaching and group they should thrive in digital entrepreneurship and on-line programs.
The Think in Color summit helped Thinkific attain and assist a brand new viewers—one which has been historically underserved on-line. It featured over 15 uncooked interviews with a various group of ladies entrepreneurs, rolled out over a four-day interval.
And whereas placing collectively even a single webinar can typically really feel like a Herculean activity, Andrea says Unbounce helped make the execution straightforward. They used touchdown pages for each a part of the summit—from the registration web page, to the sign-up kind, to the precise web page that hosted every interview.
Thinkific makes use of the Unbounce integration with ActiveCampaign to seamlessly join their touchdown pages to their CRM. So each time somebody indicators up for a webinar, they mechanically get tagged as a lead and moved into their funnel.
We created a separate touchdown web page the place customers may register for the summit. As soon as individuals signed in, we had a kind pop up the place we may acquire extra information … The place are you from? Who’s your viewers? That approach, as we continued the summit, we may ship attendees content material curated particularly to their wants.
The summit was a smashing success, with over 10,000 individuals registering to attend. And Andrea says they’ve been capable of proceed to market to those leads after the very fact by way of e-mail, in addition to a devoted Fb group they arrange for the occasion (which at present measures in at over 1,700 members).
Campaigns like this give a possibility for consciousness that you simply in any other case wouldn’t have. It will get a possibility for individuals to come back collectively and for individuals to be taught from one another.
3. The Testing Floor for New Web site Additions
Past campaigns, Thinkific additionally makes use of touchdown pages to check new merchandise, pages, and concepts earlier than formally launching them on their web site. Andrea explains that they’ve began to do that as a result of they’ll transfer sooner in Unbounce than they’ll in WordPress.
We use Unbounce and the WordPress plugin to check our concepts and iterate on designs with out ever touching our front-end design and improvement sources. That approach, we are able to check and validate concepts earlier than we herald expensive sources to laborious code our web site.
Utilizing the straightforward Unbounce integration with WordPress, the staff at Thinkific can construct, publish, and check new pages that look similar to the remainder of their web site—with out having to rise up to their elbows in code.
The combination from Unbounce to WordPress is tremendous seamless. The URL appears the identical to our viewers, but it surely provides us the facility of the again finish of Unbounce too. We are able to measure how issues are doing, get a brand new web page up actually rapidly—and our viewers is aware of no distinction.
The Outcomes: 150,000+ Conversions in Much less Than Two Years
When you’re on the lookout for a recipe to develop your SaaS sooner, Andrea says that touchdown pages are a key ingredient. Within the final two years alone, Thinkific has been capable of drive over 150,000 conversions through Unbounce—these being leads captured through types, signups free of charge plans, or subscriptions to paid plans.
And because of Unbounce, Andrea says they have been capable of ship these outcomes (throughout 700 separate touchdown pages) with out breaking a sweat.
Unbounce is really easy and quick. The truth that it permits anybody on my staff inside hours to leap in and get began is really unimaginable. And typically the very best factor is you don’t must assume twice about it.
For the reason that very starting, Thinkific has used Unbounce to construct high-converting touchdown pages and herald new prospects. It’s been a strong software for them to scale up their SaaS and change into business leaders—and Andrea says she will’t wait to see what they do with it subsequent.
I’d completely suggest Unbounce for some other SaaS firm, small or huge. I’ve been on each side of the spectrum. Anybody can soar on and be capable to use a drag-and-drop builder, perceive tips on how to construct a touchdown web page and get it up there and iterate.
