How to Identify and Leverage Influencers to Grow Your SaaS Product
Influencers can be a powerful driver of growth for SaaS companies. Identifying and leveraging influencers who can spread awareness and drive the adoption of your product can significantly boost customer acquisition.
But how do you systematically find the right influencers and get them to talk about your SaaS? Here are some proven tips:
Define Your Ideal Influencer Profile
First, get clear on the profile of influencers who can best promote your product. Ideal influencer attributes may include:
- Relevant industry or niche (e.g. fintech, developer tools)
- Audience demographic that matches your customers
- Content focus that aligns with your product features
- Large but engaged following vs mass reach
Look at who your current users follow for insights into influencer targeting. Analyze competitors too.
Identify Potential Influencers
With your ideal profile defined, start compiling a list of potential influencers to partner with. Use tools like BuzzSumo, Little Bird, and NinjaOutreach to find relevant influencers.
Search for people creating content about topics and keywords related to your SaaS product. Look at who other influencers in your space follow and engage with.
Check their audience size and engagement metrics like social shares and comments. Prioritize quality over quantity.
Connect with Micro-Influencers
Big celebrity influencers can be hard to work with and expensive. Micro-influencers with 5,000 to 100,000 engaged followers can actually be more beneficial for SaaS customer acquisition.
Micro-influencers are more affordable, often have a niche audience, and are highly passionate. Their content drives real action.
Use outreach tools like NinjaOutreach and BuzzStream to send personalized emails when connecting with potential micro-influencers. Offer value by sharing useful resources related to their niche.
Provide Value Before Asking for Anything
Don’t immediately pitch your product. First, develop relationships by engaging with influencers and providing value:
- Comment on their content and share posts
- Send relevant articles or reports they might find interesting
- Give quotes or feedback for articles they are writing
- Connect them with other influencers you know
This builds goodwill and establishes you as a valuable resource before making any asks.
Offer Exclusive Access
Once you have established a relationship, provide exclusive early access to your product, content, or other assets the influencer can benefit from.
For example, give sneak peeks of new features, access to co-branded content, or advance invitations to webinars and events.
Influencers crave access they can share with their audience. It incentivizes them to talk about your SaaS.
Make Requests Simple and Clear
When reaching out, be direct about what you are asking for while still leaving room for influencer input:
- Can you share our guide on XYZ with your email list?
- We’d love if you could mention our integration with ABC in an upcoming post.
- Is there an angle on 123 you think would interest your followers that we can provide quotes for?
Clear requests respect the influencer’s time while giving them creative freedom. Follow up consistently but politely if you don’t hear back right away.
Compensate Accordingly
Be prepared to offer fair compensation in exchange for influencer marketing. This might include:
- Free access to your paid SaaS product
- Monetary payment for sponsored posts
- Affiliate commissions
- Co-branded giveaways they can promote
Establish expectations upfront through an influencer marketing agreement.
Provide Assets to Make Content Creation Easy
The easier you make it for influencers to create content featuring your SaaS, the more likely they are to participate.
Provide assets like:
- Pre-written tweets or Instagram captions they can use
- Blog post headline suggestions
- Relevant stats and graphics
- Editable slide decks
- Stock photos
Having these assets prepared makes it simple for influencers to integrate your brand into the content they already create.
Measure Results and Optimize
Use UTM campaign tracking, unique discount codes, and affiliate links to measure the impact of your influencer marketing efforts.
See which influencers drive the most SaaS signups or sales. Then double down on partnerships with those who deliver.
Analyze what content resonates best with their audience and give influencers more of that to feature going forward.
Influencer marketing is about developing relationships that benefit both parties. By providing influencers value and exclusive access, you can turn them into powerful amplifiers that drive measurable growth.
Identify and leverage the right influencers, and you’ll be well on your way to acquiring more customers for your SaaS product.
