How is your newsletter connected to your SaaS product?
The answer to that question might seem complicated at first. But most certainly, you already have the answer.
Every product, service, or SaaS is built to solve a problem. But as you know, most people don’t like being sold to. Constantly trying to hammer people with why your product is the best is extremely time-consuming, very expensive (how much do you imagine toilet paper brands spend each year to make people pick their roll-of-white-paper-in-plastic instead of the one next to it on the shelf?), and quite inefficient.
Making a purchase means crossing a line. Going from $0 to spending just $1 is a huge step. And the one thing you need before taking that step – buying a company’s product – is trust.
In general, buyer’s trust can be built in 3 ways:
- You use the product and see first-hand it’s working. This is why many SaaS companies take offer free trials.
- Someone tells you they’ve tried the product and it is great. Word-of-mouth is very efficient but quite hard to control.
- The company has already given you something that added value to your life, without you having to pay for it. This is where your newsletter can help.
Telling people your product is the “best on the market” isn’t gonna do it. As they don’t trust you yet. You don’t make people trust you by saying they should.
“I’ve got candy and five really cute puppies in my van over there, trust me!”, see?
Give first, ask later.
What you need to do is to SHOW your audience that you can add value to their lives. How? By actually adding value to their lives.
Signing up for a newsletter is free. The only line they need to cross is the one where they hand over their email address to you. This also needs a certain amount of trust, but not nearly as much as handing over their credit card information.
When they are signed up you have direct access to a communications channel between you and them – no gatekeeper algorithms as on social media, Youtube, or Google.
You can give them value consistently, by helping them save money, time, or effort.
Social media vs newsletter
Social media, Youtube, and blogs are great ways to give value to your audience. But they lack something that a newsletter has. The power of consistency. Every social platform is controlled by algorithms. That algorithm decides who will see what you post. And that might change from one day to another. Even if you add value to someone’s life today – enough for them to start following you – they might not see what you post tomorrow!
Giving value once is often not enough to turn someone into a paying customer. You need to do it consistently, over time. But with algorithms in play, the line of communication between you and your audience might be cut at any time.
With a newsletter, there is no such gatekeeper. Between 95 – 100% of the people on your mailing list will receive your newsletter. This means you can stay in touch with them, and help them until you’ve built enough trust for them to make a purchase!