9 tactics to get your first 50 SaaS customers in 2025

Plus: Alternative page hub & 2 must-haves to gain customer insights

Alexander Estner

Jan 19, 2025

Hey - it’s Alex!

Today we cover:

1️⃣ 9 tactics to get your first 50 SaaS customers in 2025

2️⃣ Alternative pages hub: Breakcold example

3️⃣ 2 must-haves to gain customer insights

Bonus: List of my vetted Go-to software tools for early-stage SaaS startups

I took 4 weeks off - here’s why👇

First of all BIG SORRY for NOT sending a newsletter for 1 month 🙏

No alternative text description for this image — Me recharging in Thailand Koh Phangan 👆

2024 was an intense and challenging year for me.

👉 being a solopreneur
👉 running this awesome newsletter
👉 helping 15+ SaaS founders
👉 getting married
👉 building a house

Not in a bad way. Just intense. It required a lot of energy.

So it was time to recharge. Recharging for all the things coming in 2025.

So I decided to take 4 weeks off over Christmas & New Year. Including NOT sending a newsletter at that time.

Instead, I enjoyed life with my wife in Thailand 🇹🇭

😎 Lots of Sun and Sea
🧘‍♂️ Yoga, Pilates & Gym
☕ Yummy food & coffee
📗 Books & Reflection

Now I’m back full of energy and working on super exciting content for you 🎉

A few topics that we will cover in the next episodes:

👉 Guide on Founder-Led LinkedIn

👉 Guide on SEO for early-stage SaaS

👉 The perfect SaaS Pricing page

✉️ Hit reply and let me know what topics you want to read in 2025.

#1: 9 tactics to get (your first 50) SaaS customers in 2025

Working with SaaS founders on GTM the #1 question I get is.

What channels and tactics should we test to win new customers???

But every startup is different. What channels and tactics work for your SaaS depend on a few factors, including:

✅ your type of Ideal Customers (where they hang out, how they buy products, etc.)

✅ your (founder) skills (founder-led sales)

✅ your pricing (enterprise sales is different than selling to prosumers)

✅ the competitive landscape & maturity of the market (can you capture existing demand?)

So you can't just copy and paste from others. You need to see what works for your situation.

9 tactics that I would test in 2025 (to get the first 50 customers) 👇

1️⃣ Network Sales

👉 Reach out to people in your network.

2️⃣ Warm intros

👉 Ask your investors, advisors, friends, etc for intros

3️⃣ Referrals

👉 Ask your first customers for intros. Learn how to ask for referrals the right way.

“Okay, thanks for the demo. Great to see that (your company name) is a good fit for you. Now that you know who we work with (your ICP) and what our product can do for companies like you, who are 2-3 other companies/people you think can benefit from it, too?”

…and then if they tell you some names, respond the following:

“Thanks. Would you mind making an email intro for me? If you want, I can also send you an intro template to make it easier for you”.

4️⃣ Influencer partnerships

👉 Engage with 3-5 relevant experts and pay them to promote your product.

5️⃣ Founder-Led LinkedIn

👉 Post daily and comment daily to build thought leadership. Follow the 9 social selling tactics that drive impact.

6️⃣ Social Selling

👉 Track intent and reach out to ICPs. (V1 intent data: profile views, likes, comments)

7️⃣ 'BOFU' content

👉 Alternative & comparison pages (for existing product categories). Works great in rather crowded red-ocean markets with existing demand. (25+ Content Templates)

8️⃣ Paid search

👉 Bet on high-intent keywords on Google. (Google Ads Guide)

Best Google Ads Campaigns for SaaS startups

9️⃣ Niche newsletter sponsorships

👉 Find newsletters that are read by your target audience. Goes hand in hand with 4️⃣

(Want to promote your product/service to 4500+ SaaS leaders? Sponsor this newsletter)

✉️ What tactic is missing in your opinion? Hit reply and let me know.

#2: Alternative pages hub

One of the best alternative page hubs I've seen in a long time.

Arnaud Belinga 🧊🔨 and the Breakcold team did a great job.

Alternative pages are a great growth tactic for SaaS companies in crowded markets. And CRM is 100% a red ocean. But I'm sure they will receive lots of traffic from this page.

Here’s what they did:

✅ Created 50+ Comparison pages (Breakcold vs. Competitor X)

✅ Created a pillar page (aka Alternative Pages Hub)

✅ Made this page public (linked in the footer)

On LinkedIn, we had a great discussion if you should hide these pages or make them public. What’s your take?

So if you operate in a crowded market and your ICP is product or product category aware, the following BOFU Content pages are for you:

1️⃣ Comparison pages

👉 Comparison — {You} vs {Competitor}

👉 Comparison — {Competitor} vs {Competitor}

👉 Comparison — {Competitor} vs {Competitor} vs {You}

2️⃣ Alternative pages

👉 Comparison — {Competitor} Alternative

👉 Alternatives — X Best {Competitor} Alternatives

3️⃣ Product Category Listicles

👉 Product list — X Best {Product Category} Tools

I’ve collected 20+ examples in the Ultimate Content Marketing Guide, so you can get started right away.

👉 Any other great examples? Just click respond and share your examples.

#3 The 2 must-haves to gain customer insights

Learning about your customers is key. While you get a lot of insights talking to your customers, there are 2 easy ways to gain valuable insights on the fly.

Must-have 1: Self-reported attribution in sign-up form

The first one is called self-reported attribution. It means that your customers tell you how they found you/your product.

This one is pretty simple. You ask your customers:

“How did you hear about us?”

By doing so you will learn what channels work to optimize your campaigns.

Depending on your sales motion, the information can be collected in multiple ways:

1️⃣ Sign-up form / Book demo

2️⃣ Onboarding flow

3️⃣ On the sales call

Of course, you can combine these methods.

Make sure that you save this information in your CRM (custom field).

Must-have 2: Lost reason tracking in CRM

Learning why you’re losing the deal is pure gold. But most founders don’t track the reasons systematically in their CRM-

Here are the 7 reasons I recommend tracking 👇

1️⃣ Decided for competition

2️⃣ Status quo sufficient

3️⃣ Decision delayed

4️⃣ Too expensive / no budget

5️⃣ missing key feature

6️⃣ no response

7️⃣ other

Below you see a screenshot of how you can do this in your CRM (Hubspot).

A few things to consider:

❌ Using open text boxes to track reasons is not ideal.

✅ Instead, use dropdown options.

✅ These 7 pre-defined lost reasons should cover 90% of your lost deals.

✅ In case you see an emerging reason in your 'other' bucket you could add them as a dropdown option (e.g. Compliance risk).

✅ Having pre-defined reasons makes analyzing lost reasons easier.

✅ Add an (optional) text field to add more context to the lost reasons.

Happy growth 🚀

Alex

Bonus: Best read of the week 👇

3 ways I can help you grow your SaaS to €1 million ARR 🚀

Build your GTM strategy with my free SaaS GTM Strategy Workbook (helped 4500+ SaaS leaders)
Get access to 100+ actionable SaaS growth tactics (helped 250+ SaaS leaders) - 100% positive ROI guarantee.
Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for early-stage SaaS founders on their way to €1 million ARR (1 free spot - limited to 8 founders).