What are the best Market Entry Strategies for a SaaS (Software as a Service) based company, gaining market share in Australia and Europe?

If retention and monetization rates are healthy, and you want to focus on acquisition, I would go with the following:

- Niche or vertical focused landing pages on your website, to build and grow a list of emails/phone numbers for your sales team.

- An Adwords search campaign targeted at your competitors, to try and steal some of their not-so-satisfied customers.

- Social. This is an obvious one, be on the social networks your customers spend the most time on, and engage them with valuable content (Do not try to sell them anything through social, at least, not at this stage).

- Offline marketing if you have the budget to do that, if not, focus on local barter deals and partnerships.

Best of luck :)
Mohammad Lafi
Lafi.me

It would help to know a little bit more about your business. What are you selling? Who are your ideal customers?
Who are incumbents in the market today? Market leader?
How much do you charge? What is your sales cycle? Process? How established are you in your current market? What is your team makeup? Sales people? Marketers? Content writers?

Based on a more clear picture I'd be happy to offer some tips.

I assume that you are based in the US ? My experience pertains primarily to Europe where I am based. I work for Xpenditure.com a leading SaaS company based here. Again I am assuming you are B2B as that will impact on the advice. Similarly the price points of your offering will also impact on the strategy - Freemium v Field Sales. Finally, I am assuming you are funded (at least Series B).

Our offering is a leading expense management solution and not surprisingly we utilise a mix of different approaches incl:

1/ NB of a Local Presence in Europe (rather than trying to access remotely). Dublin and London are popular choices.

2/ Aggressive investment in PPC (Google)

3/ Attendance at local events and exhibitions relevant to your market

4/ Influencer engagement in Europe

5/ PR (As Mark Suster always maintains there are numerous silent benefits)

6/ Localised Content

7/ Social Media Activity (paid and organic)

The above represents a short list of some activities (it is far from exhaustive).

Hope this helps

@alangleeson

VP of Marketing
Xpenditure - Expense Management

I am not trying to sell you on calling me. Really, I am pretty busy with my businesses and consulting. However, I need more info before I could have a greater impact in helping you.

Ask, Ask, Ask, then Ask again.

Bonus:
Here is $10,000 worth of information for free and in a nutshell.

Concentrate on the 3 M's. There are actually 7, but 3 will do for now. These are Market, Message, and Media. They come in that order.

Who is your target market (customer, clients, buyers, users, etc.)?
Tailor your laser focused message for this target market.
What is the best media mix to get your message to that market?

Here's what you do...first, make it an offer that is so incredible that they cannot resist. Secondly, do all the work for them. Make it so easy to make the purchase now that they can do it virtually without effort. Thirdly, give them an incentive to act right now. Fourthly, offer an almost unbelievable guarantee. Fifth, offer a bonus for acting now. There are many other incredible steps, but these steps should help the novice to the professional sell anything.

Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, you have to focus on selling to only one person. You can actually sell to one person at a time while selling to millions at a time. They are one and the same. Don't get off track, what we call digital marketing selling is just selling in print. And that has not changed since Cluade Hopkins wrote "Scientific Advertising." Really long before he wrote the book.

The secret to success: I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with some of the biggest names in business, celebrities, actors, entrepreneurs, business people, and companies from startup to billion dollar operations. The number one reason for their success is doing what they know and love while doing it in new, creative, and innovative ways.

Ask, Ask, Ask. Have thick skin and learn from each "mistake." In a short while, the market will tell you what you need to do and who and what you need to ask. But get started now even if that just means asking a contact on LinkedIn.

While you are thinking, think big and think of something at least 1% better, newer, or different. And being cheaper is not a winning strategy.

Make decisions quickly and change decisions slowly..unless you are actually going off a cliff.

Remember these two 11 letter words...persistence and consistency. They are two of the most important tools ever invented.

Treat everybody you talk to and everybody you meet (including yourself) like each is your number one million dollar customer.

Best of luck,
Take massive action and never give up.
Michael

Michael Irvin, MBA, RN

The best way to start a SaaS based company and start gaining market share is through free-trials, testimonials and media coverage.

Have you got a free trial available at the moment? How have you been promoting it so far?

I'd be writing blog posts, sharing them out to related industries. Finding influencers and offering them trials in return for a review or a post (if they like the product).

It really comes down to getting users onto the product, and getting their experiences out there.

I'd love to jump on a call and walk you through these strategies and more if you're interested! It'll be easier to give you specifics when I know more about your particular business!