GDPR Compliant Growth Hacks (TheBootstrappedWay.com)

GDPR Compliant
Growth Hacks for SaaS
and Tech Companies
I curated this list with proven, actionable growth
marketing campaigns that are worth trying by every
product owner. Ideas that will bring you leads on a
regular basis, for long-term relations.
Powered by TheBootstrappedWay.com

#1
Product Integration Hack
Building integrations between your product and others to
complement them is a fantastic way to obtain new leads and
grow.

What is it about?
The idea is to integrate your app with other well-known products,
thus improving and complementing their functionality.
It is beneficial for you because you get access to their audience.
As for connected products, they benefit because you create an
additional value for them. Thus, their users will stay longer with
them.
As a result, the majority of companies has separate integration
pages listing a variety of add-ons in various categories. Check
Asana, Basecamp, Slack, Stripe, Xero, MailChimp and more. And
it is very cool to list your product there.
Original source: everhour.com

Why to consider?
If you do it right, you can get from 500 to 1,000 new visitors
(potential leads) per month with just a single integration. The
team at Everhour (the source of this article) is very confident in
numbers as they observe similar results from their integrations.
Think how long would it take for any other channel or how much
will it cost to achieve similar numbers? Also, it is a constant flow
of users. For example, some blog post can give one-day surge,
but over time, the number will drop.
Moreover, the conversion rate is often much higher than from
other sources. We are talking about the conversion of 10-15%.
Easily. So, investing time in integrations once, you’ll reap the
benefits for a long time.

Checklist
❏ List and research any popular products you can integrate
with. Research your competitors, what add-ons do they
have?
❏ Check if those products have a dedicated page to feature
you. How crowded are those pages? Popularity comes first;
❏ Contact them to make sure they are taking new
applications. What’s the process? Make sure they are not
making ONLY in-house integrations;
❏ Prepare landing page featuring integration. This page is
splendid for your SEO, plus it makes sense to use this page
as a backlink from the integration one;
❏ Prepare texts and screenshots for the partner page. They
should be made thoroughly as any adjustment may take
time;
❏ Write a blog post on a new integration.

#2
Free Account for Bloggers
Popular bloggers can be just as influential as PR agencies. Reach
out to the top notch bloggers and offer them a free account in
exchange for a review.

What is it about?
When it comes to content marketing, your ultimate goals are to
achieve coverage, thus making more and more people get to
know about you, sign up and purchase.
Very often startups make big guys like TechCrunch or Mashable
their first and prime objective.
A slight percentage succeed. The result may be measly in fact.
Being listed there does not mean that you’ll get a lot of targeted
leads and customers. Not to say that the above-mentioned
resources require serious preparations from your side.
An alternative solution we’d like to suggest is to look for blogs
dedicated to your industry field. Even more, ideally you do not
spend time on writing texts at all. You simply encourage the
efforts and initiative of others.

Why to consider?
As mentioned, some bloggers can be just as influential as PR
agencies.
Bloggers are always hungry for a useful and unique content. By
offering them a free account and an additional discount to their
readers will make them highly motivated.
You save a lot of time on writing and editing texts, on preparing
test accounts and making screenshots by yourself. All you need
is just to create a reward coupon.
It’s risk-free. You are the one who makes the final decision,
whether you like the resource and audience, whether you like the
copy etc.
Bloggers are always much faster with a response and easier to
negotiate with.

Checklist
❏ Make a list of the most relevant and popular blogs and
contact them with an offer;
❏ Simultaneously, build a standalone landing page listing all
the details and terms like ours and feature this deal on
most relevant pages e.g. Pricing, thus providing your
prospects to reduce their monthly bill;
❏ Prepare a detailed list of requirements in order to facilitate
a self-application process;

#3
Inﬂuence Marketing
Go through YouTube and search for popular channels/influencers
in your industry. Offer them a free account or any other attractive
deal for shooting a video.

Similar to the previous hack, the idea is to make others sweat for
your growth. We picked up Youtube, but it can be any other
platform.
You specifically target the platform community experts who
have influence over potential buyers. Those who are in a position
to share a new product (like yours) or communicate with
thousands with the click of a button.
As Sergei Gusev, Co-founder @Scentbird, explains in his blog
post :
“When we started Scentbird in 2014, we were looking for a fast
and cheap way to grow our subscriber base. Fortunately, I
stumbled upon a video on YouTube where a girl with 150,000
followers was talking about her favorite products that she had
been using that month. I realized that this is exactly what we
need…
What is it about?

“We have a product; now I just need to reach out to her and
offer her our product for free. If she likes it, she could review it in
her next video. The resulting review from this girl brought us
almost 100 sales in 2 days. The economics were incredible. One
month of our subscription costs $14.95, and I got 100 sales. My
resulting CPA was $0.14 per customer. It was a game changer
for us.”
Speaking about team’s and personal productivity, task- and
time management apps, we recommend to pay attention to
DottoTech, Francesco D’Alessio (Productivity Apps) or Carl Pullein.
What is it about?

Why to consider?
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. Many
people prefer watching a video to reading a text.
You don’t spend time on generating a high-quality content.
Instead, you delegate this to people who are very keen on this.
Your videos will do their job for a very long time. Moreover, you
can use this video in your knowledge base, inbound marketing
and sales.
Finally, this is cheap.

Checklist
❏ Find channels that shoot videos in your industry;
❏ Contact a channel owner. Try to reach out to many experts,
be ready that some might even not respond to you at all;
❏ Schedule a demo with those who are interested. This could
help them learn your product faster, and you could
highlight core advantages of your product;
❏ Offer them a free account and a personalized discount for
their audience;

#4
Tools Comparison Pages
Convert people who haven’t yet made up their minds about
which company to purchase from. It could be a dedicated
landing page or a simple blog post

What is it about?
It highly likely that you operate in the industry with well-known
companies which have a large user base and people heard
about them. They might search for a related blog post
“Competitor 1 vs Competitor 2”.
You can create a page “You vs Competitor 1 vs Competitor 2” to
give people a hint which advantages you possess over a big
competitor. Many like making a decision by testing two products
at one time.
Everhour has done such comparison of their first version vs.
Harvest and Toggl. Now, if you google something like “harvest vs
toggl”, it will be on the top.

Why to consider?
A long tail strategy. Users always search and compare by visiting
your page. Once created, no interference is expected. The team
at Everhour wrote a blog post two years ago, and it still boasts
800-1,000 pageviews/month.
Another benefit is the ability to explain first thing yourself what is
your core advantage over competitors.
This post might have a form of a simple landing page, used in
Google Ads when searching for your competitor. Here is an
example.
A good idea is to provide users a data import, when they decide
in your favor to leave a rival. This is something that definitely
facilitates such decision.

Checklist
❏ Prepare a list of your competitors;
❏ Make an entirely open and frank comparison of your
product against theirs. Polish your post/page SEO;
❏ Start the engine of your content car by sharing it on the
social media, writing guest posts, featured articles, etc.

#5
“Powered by” Badges
Embeds and badges are among your best bets for going viral

What is it about?
The trick is to get assistance from your current users with new
user generation by showcasing your brand while using it.
A couple of well-known examples are MailChimp and Typeform.
Mailchimp free plan, for instance, requires you to add their logo
at the bottom of your email. So, recipients may find out about
Mailchimp though businesses who use it to interact with their
users.
I really like what Softr.io is doing, they actually built their website
using their own platform and display their logo on the bottom left
side. Systeme.io is doing something similar, displaying badges
on their free plan.
That works well if you offer a free plan. This is the kind of a price
you pay - serve as an advertising agent. Another form of this
strategy is an optional referral program. Users post your badge
to invite others and get a reward for this (ex., a discount).

Why to consider?
It is very exciting to see new leads coming through existing
customers. Not everybody is willing to do a share. Badges and
embedded buttons do this automatically.
Embeds can be put everywhere that gets sent to other people or
that will be publicly visible is a perfect match for this.
For example: any widget that users add to their site (ex.
Intercom), invoicing (in its footer), emails (ex. MailChimp),
surveys etc. Really, anything.

Checklist
❏ Think about where to put the badge. Don’t slap your logo
and a “Powered By” tagline on any random item that you
can get populated on other sites. It needs to make sense;
❏ Test various forms of it. An excellent piece on this topic in
the following blog post;

#6
Get Listed on ProductHunt
Follow best practices and three hours and countless online
conversations later, you may hit over 5,000 unique visitors!

ProductHunt is a global community which surfaces the best new
products, every day. It’s a place for product-loving enthusiasts to
share and geek out about the latest mobile apps, websites,
hardware projects, and tech creations.
Not a big deal to get posted there. The task is to get attention
from your post. We recommend to read these articles dedicated
to this topic: "The ultimate guide to launching on product hunt",
"How I launched the #1 most upvoted product of all time", "How
we got +1000 upvotes on ProductHunt".
What is it about?

Why to consider?
Don’t expect this channel bring you much of long-tail traffic.
Nevertheless, if you get into the week or day top listings, you are
sure to receive at least several thousands of visits from all over
the world.
This is a good opportunity for an early stage startup to receive a
priceless feedback.
The second advantage is that many popular bloggers check this
platform frequently. They might want to write about you. Another
group of people monitoring this platform are investors. Good
chance to find one for your product.
Lastly, it is not hard compared to generating and spreading a
high-value content.

Checklist
❏ Prepare all promo material beforehand (images,
screenshots, title and 1st comment);
❏ Your product can be published at any stage. Be aware that
if somebody post you when you are not ready, you will have
to improvise;
❏ Find a top hunter who will submit your post. Like Eric Willis or
Kevin William David. You can make it yourself too, if you are
a maker;
❏ Many claim the best time to go live is on Tuesday, 2 am
CST. A good chance to get more attention during the week,
but at the same time, there is a higher competition;
❏ Make a dedicated discount page for hunters. They like free
stuff. Proved by our experience;
❏ Make sure to provide a swift response on D-day;

#7
Side Project Marketing
Give something valuable away. Some of those who like what you
create on the side end up willing to learn more about your core
business. The ROI of some side projects might blow your mind
away.

Crew (an online marketplace for mobile/web creators) wrote a
case study, when they built a mini-website called Unsplash in a
desperate attempt to attract customers. It listed free HD-quality
photos. They shared a link to this resource on Hacker News.
It cost them roughly 20$ and 1-2 hours of their time.
The result was stunning: 50,000 visits on the same day. The
greatest achievement was that people took an interest not just in
photos, but in a company behind the website. Later Unsplash
became the major traffic referrer to the Crew’s site. And since
then, they’ve gone on to create other side projects which have
also become significant traffic boosters. But Unsplash is still the
top referral source to their website and has generated over 5
million unique visitors.
What is it about?

What is it about?
The tip is to make something that solves a particular problem
and give it out for free. Some users then might be converted into
customers of your core business.
The best marketing is when no one realizes it is marketing. A
good read on why side marketing is a king can be found here.

Content marketing is not a fit for all. Some prefer writing an
article, others prefer actions over words. BTW, "code is also a
content" - and it's great content, because it's harder to
reproduce.
Pretty much anything can become a side project. It doesn’t have
to be conventional, expensive, or mind blowing, it just has to be
something that really speaks to your specific audience.
Different types of Quizzes, Courses, Calculators, Curated
directories, Generators, Graders, Communities, Goodies, Podcast,
Newsletters and so on.
As you can see, there’s a ton of potential out there when it comes
to side project marketing.
Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of HubSpot, recently said that this
tool alone is responsible for a huge portion of the 50,000 leads
the company gets every month.
Why to consider?

Why to consider?
Crew has since gone on to create other side projects, but
Unsplash is still the top referral source to their website and has
generated over 5 million unique visitors.
For more example, feel free to read this.

Checklist
❏ Try to create something that actually solves a real problem.
That’s where your side project marketing plan is going to
truly stand out. When you have something that is valuable,
it will likely to last far longer than a blog post;
❏ Side project is something that should be done on the side,
that means it needs to be something that is relatively quick
and easy to get done;
❏ You could kick start on ProductHunt or Hacker News;

#8
Share to Extend Trial
On the last day of your trial period, ask people either purchase or
request to have an account’s expiry date extended in exchange
for sharing on Twitter or Facebook.

Sometimes the trial period is not long enough for users to see the
value you give to their business. There are numerous reasons for
this: lack of time, a thick layer of decision makers, waiting for an
approval, etc.
A small portion of users will write to ask for a trial extension
directly. However, the majority will just be lazy or shy to do this,
walk away to your competitor who gives longer trial periods.
One of the solutions is to give them an option to extend a trial
automatically in exchange for a tweet/facebook share.
What is it about?

Why to consider?
It’s not a secret that you don’t expect people just write about
your product in B2B. While the trial extension kills 2 birds with one
stone.
Everhour.com stats say that 60% of those who extended a trial
via tweet ended up being a paying user. They help their team
spread the word and ingrain Everhour into their workflow in a
deeper way.
Something to read on the topic here.

Checklist
❏ Write a share script. You can check if somebody has
already mentioned you, what tweets got the most likes and
retweets;
❏ Make a dedicated page for users where they appear after a
share;
❏ Think of what is the best place in the product to put a link to
that page;

#9
Customer Referral Program
Customer references are among the most sustainable and
cost-effective ways to grow a business.

It is very easy nowadays to come across such offer: “Tell a friend
about us and everyone wins! They get 15% off of their first order.
You get 25% of the subtotal of that same first order.”
Word-of-mouth has been essential for growing a business.
Customers rely on the word of other users who have told them
that going with a company is a good idea.
A referral program is simply the implementation of a system that
gets previous and existing customers or clients to inform
potential customers or clients that your services are worth using.
There are 2 types:
One-Way Referral. This technique asks existing users to refer the
product/service to their friends and acquaintances in exchange
for some kind of benefit.
What is it about?

What is it about?
Two-Way Referral Technique. The two-way referral technique
gives benefits to both the referrer and the referee and is usually
accompanied with an incentive. An engaging experience helps
both the referrer and the referee along with the business itself.
Two-Way referrals are almost always more efficient.

It’s simple to launch and requires little input from your end in the
future. Once done right, you receive new clients through existing
clients.
When your customers are small businesses, they are more prone
to participate as they always seek to optimize their costs.
Customers referred by trusted sources have a 37% higher
retention rate than the average buyer. In other words, users who
are referred by loyal customers tend to become loyal customers.
With referral software, your business will have an additional
opportunity to reward your customers. E.g., for referring five
friends, you may offer one month of service to customers at no
cost.
Why to consider?

Why to consider?
Today, some of the most popular brands use referral marketing.
The key objective is to avoid unnecessary complexity and to
ensure that the rewards come quickly.
Good example is here.

Checklist
❏ Make it clear that your referral program is easy, that
everything is above board, and that your customers have a
lot to gain from it;
❏ Figure out the best time within a client stage to ask them to
make a referral;
❏ Other services that offer a ready solution for your referral
system, ex. Referral SaaSquatch, Ambassador,
ReferralCandy.
❏ Send a personal “thank you” message to each customer
that conveys your enthusiasm and appreciation for their
referral;

Do you want to know how other tech
companies have generated MRR?

I deconstruct how startups grow and share
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Hey, I’m Daniel. I’m the founder of The Bootstrapped Way and
Fractional CMO. I work with B2B SaaS companies to design
and execute demand generation, lead generation, and
growth strategies.
I created TheBootstrappedWay.com out of personal necessity.
My notes were buried in Google Docs, email messages to
myself, and my swipe files were completely disorganized. So I
signed up for Airtable, thought of this idea, bought the domain
a few months later, and here I am.
Two years ago, I steered away from mainstream blogs and
shifted my focus to working with and learning from some of
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