Create a Free Micro-Product to Acquire New Users for Your Existing SaaS

Victoria Rudi
June 22, 2022
⌚ 4 min read

→ Your growth practice

Build and launch a free SaaS micro-product as an addition to your paid software, to increase brand awareness and acquire new users.

→ Why it matters

  • Find new ways to differentiate your SaaS brand and connect with your target group. Just think about it: What’s more powerful in terms of value generation? An on-demand eBook nobody reads, or a free SaaS micro-tool that solves a specific problem?

→ Definitions

📓 Free SaaS micro-product: Some SaaS companies with well-defined paid products will release micro-platforms or tools offered for free. Usually, these SaaS companies will build free micro-products aligned with their target audiences’ needs.

→ Quick explanation

💥 Problem(s)

  • Low brand awareness.
  • People may know about your paid software. Yet, they’re indecisive about giving it a try.
  • You’re competing in an overcrowded niche and need to differentiate yourself.
  • You’ve identified a micro-niche problem your target group has. However, building a feature to solve it is impossible because the functionality is not aligned with your product’s vision.
  • You may find it difficult to access a new industry or connect with new audiences.

💡 Solution

  • Build and launch a free SaaS micro-product that solves a micro-niche problem for your target audience or other target groups you want to reach out to. Provide an easy-to-access and use micro-platform to help people with one ultra-specific task or job.

► Quick note: Do not confuse a free SaaS micro-product with a free plan SaaS companies may offer. The latter is a gateway to acquiring new software users and then working on converting them into paying customers. On the other hand, a free SaaS micro-product aims to solve a micro-niche problem target audiences have, serving as an introduction to the brand and the major solutions the main software can provide.

→ Your growth opportunities

  • Increase brand awareness. For example, you can launch your free SaaS micro-product on Product Hunt and get the support of your audience. Subsequently, you’ll build noise around it and gain more exposure.
  • Acquire new users easier.
  • Using your free micro-product may get people interested in your main SaaS product.
  • Access a new target group or enter a new industry. For example, you may have developed software that works well for multiple niche audiences. However, you’ve decided to focus on a specific target group, laser-focusing your offer and marketing campaign. After a while, you may want to reconsider your strategy and reach out to a new niche audience. One way to do that is to launch a free SaaS micro-product and use it to connect with a new target group (through personalized messaging).

→ Case example

>> Twitter Streak by TweetHunter

In June 2022, Tweet Hunter released a free micro-product called Twitter Streak.

Twitter Streak Screenshot

Twitter Streak is a straightforward tool helping Twitter users to get consistent about their publishing efforts.

Users must simply sign up for the platform and start tweeting, while the tool will count their streak. Twitter Streak invites users to reach a 100-day streak of publishing on Twitter.

Apart from counting the streak, the product allows users to visualize a couple of graphics, such as a timeline that includes:

  • Total tweets, original tweets, retweets, and replies
  • The number of followers

Also, Twitter Streak is based on gamification. People who continue publishing daily tweets will receive rewards, such as:

  • 150 viral tweet collection after a 7-day streak
  • 30 tweet templates after a 14-day streak
  • Access to Tweet Hunter University after a 30-day streak
  • Viral tweets across 13 niches after a 60-day streak
Twitter Streak Screenshot

The company offers a Twitter Streak Leaderboard to make things more interesting, making public the success people achieve with publishing daily on Twitter.

Twitter Streak Screenshot

Tweet Hunter released a straightforward product, fully aligned with one specific need (keep publishing consistency) Twitter users (the company’s target group) have.

Moreover, Tweet Hunter released its new free micro-product on Product Hunt, receiving over 400 upvotes and dozens of comments.

At the moment, Twitter Streak has hundreds of users. Some of these people may later become Tweet Hunter’s paying customers.  

► Quick note: On the 25th of May 2022, the Tweet Hunter founders announced reaching $1M ARR after only one year of the company’s existence.

Twitter Screenshot

→ Is this practice good for your SaaS?

Questions:

  • Do I have the resources to build a free micro-product?
  • What niche problem can I solve?
  • What’s the primary goal I’m pursuing with my free micro-product?
  • What’s the main target group for my free micro-product?

Requirements:

  • Your free micro-product has to be aligned with your existing product. You can’t offer something completely new with no use case similarities to your existing software.
  • You must build the free micro-product for your existing audience or the target group you want to reach out to. In any case, you have to develop this free micro-product for a target group that will be interested in your paid software.
  • This growth practice works both for PLG and sales-led companies.

→ How to apply this growth practice

✅ What’s great about this growth practice is that you don’t have to start from scratch. You already have the necessary insights and resources to build a free micro-product.

Just think about it: First, you have access to an audience, including your users and customers. By talking to these people, you can easily identify a micro-challenge they have. Subsequently, you can build a micro-product around this specific problem, which your software normally doesn’t solve.

Second, you already have a product team that can develop a small tool based on your existing platform.

✅ To make things easier for your team, you can ask people to consider this free micro-product as another feature. But instead of incorporating it into your software, you’ll offer it as a separate micro-product.

✅ In some cases, you may want to provide early access to your free micro-product to beta users. This way, you can gather valuable feedback and build a small community that will later help you promote the micro-tool.  

✅ Build the micro-tool and create a small landing page for it.

✅ If you or your team members have a strong audience on Twitter, announce that you’ll release a new, free micro-product on Product Hunt. Make sure to announce the day and the hour of your free micro-product launch and ask for people’s support with upvotes and comments on Product Hunt.

✅ Release the product, and start following KPIs, such as the number of:

  • New users who signup for the free micro-product
  • Free micro-product users who signup for your SaaS software free trial or freemium plan
  • Free micro-product users who purchased a plan to use your SaaS software
  • Existing customers that signup for your free micro-product

By analyzing this data, you’ll understand the real impact your free micro-product has on your overall business growth.