How to Promote My SaaS: A Channel-by-Channel Plan
How to promote my SaaS without a big budget: a 90-day plan across directories, content, email, outreach and paid ads, with what to do first and what to skip.
If you want to promote your SaaS on a small budget, don't pick one channel and pray. Pick two or three, run each for a full month, and measure signups and replies, not impressions. The order that works for most early products: get listed where buyers already look, publish a few pages that answer real questions, then turn on email and paid only once you know who converts.
Here is the plan we'd follow for the first 90 days.
What should I do before promoting anything?
Three small jobs, one afternoon.
- Write one sentence. "[Product] helps [specific person] do [specific job] without [pain]." If you can't, no channel will fix that.
- Fix the landing page. One headline that matches the sentence, one screenshot of the real product, one button. Remove the nav links that lead away from signup.
- Install basic tracking. Use UTM tags on every link you post (
?utm_source=...). Without them, in week six you'll be guessing which channel worked.
Where do I start: directories and launch platforms?
Start here because it's cheap and the audience is already hunting for tools. A listing gives you a permanent page, a backlink-style mention and a way for people to compare you with alternatives.
- Create a free listing in Woodander Discover, the product directory, and fill in every field: category, pricing, a clear one-line description.
- Browse the curated places to submit a startup in Woodander Outreach and pick five that match your niche. Read each one's rules first. Submitting to everything with the same blurb reads as spam.
- Pick one launch day on a launch platform of your choice (Product Hunt and Hacker News's "Show HN" are the usual suspects). Prepare the first comment, answer every reply the same day, and don't expect the spike to last more than a few days.
What we'd skip: paid "guaranteed traffic" packages and bulk submission services. Nobody can guarantee users, and low-quality directories add nothing.
How do I get found through content?
Search is slow, but it compounds. One strong page beats ten thin ones.
- Find 10 questions your buyers type: "how to [do the job]", "[competitor] alternative", "[tool type] for [role]".
- Write one page per question, with a real example or screenshot from your product. Skip generic definitions that every other site already has.
- Check titles and meta descriptions with the free tools in Woodander SEO tools before publishing.
- Add two internal links per page so readers (and crawlers) can move through your site.
Expect months, not weeks. If you can only do one content format, do comparison and "alternative to" pages: those readers are close to buying.
Does email still work for a young SaaS?
Yes, if you treat it as conversation, not broadcast. Collect addresses from the signup form, a short checklist or a changelog subscription, then send one useful email a week.
Two things to get right early:
- Authenticate your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before your first campaign. Google publishes its email sender guidelines for exactly this, and the rules for larger senders are stricter than people expect.
- Make unsubscribing easy. It protects your sender reputation more than any subject-line trick.
Onboarding emails often outperform newsletters for SaaS, because the reader just signed up and is paying attention. Write three: what to do in the first ten minutes, one case that shows value, one question asking what's blocking them.
Is it worth buying ads or sponsorships?
Not on day one. Paid works when you already know what converts, so use organic channels to find your message first.
When you're ready, start small:
| Option | Good for | Test budget idea |
|---|---|---|
| Search ads on competitor and "alternative" terms | Buyers who already know the category | A small daily cap for two weeks |
| Newsletter sponsorships in your niche | Reaching one trusted audience at once | One slot, one clear offer |
| Placements in a marketplace like Woodander Market | Comparing ad spots by audience before you buy | One placement, tracked with UTM |
| LinkedIn or Meta ads | B2B targeting by role, or retargeting visitors | Only after your landing page converts organically |
Decide in advance what a result looks like (for example, "20 trial signups at under X per signup") and stop if you miss it twice. We don't promise any channel will pay back; plenty don't.
How do I find partners and write guest posts?
Pick five sites or newsletters your buyers already read. Offer something specific: a data point from your own product, a founder story with real numbers, or a how-to they don't have. Pitch one editor at a time, short, with the headline already written.
This is slow and low-volume. It pays off because a mention on a respected site keeps sending readers and builds trust with search engines for months.
What does a 90-day schedule look like?
| Weeks | Focus | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Positioning, landing page, tracking | Signup rate on the page |
| 3 to 4 | Directory listings and one launch day | Signups per source |
| 5 to 8 | Two content pages per week, onboarding emails | Impressions, trial starts |
| 9 to 12 | One paid test and two outreach pitches | Cost per signup, replies |
At the end, keep the two channels with the strongest signups per hour of effort and drop the rest. More ideas for this category live on the Marketing & Advertising hub.
FAQ
How do I promote my SaaS with no budget?
Use free listings, helpful content, direct outreach and onboarding email. They cost time, not money, and they teach you who your buyer is before you pay for ads.
How long until promotion shows results?
Directories and launches can bring signups within days. Content and guest posts usually take months. Paid ads can show data in two weeks, but only if the landing page already works.
Should I promote my app on social media?
Only where your buyers actually talk about the problem. One active channel beats four dead ones. Share real progress, screenshots and what you learned.
What is the first thing to fix?
Your landing page. Sending traffic to a page that doesn't say who it's for wastes every channel above.
Pick the one channel from this plan you haven't touched yet and block two hours for it this week.
