→ Your growth practice

Generate multiple product templates and use them to showcase the value of your software.

→ Why it matters

• Create more user acquisition opportunities. Build additional pathways on your page to convert your website visitors into users.
  

→ Definitions

📓 Product templates: Use models a SaaS platform can generate. Users can personalize these models by adding their data, text, images, design elements, or other attributes.

📓 Template categories: SaaS companies may offer a wide variety of templates depending on the users’ role, industry, use case, and more. Creating different categories allows people to navigate the template library more efficiently and identify the one that suits their needs.

→ Quick explanation

💥 Problem(s)

• Your website visitors may have difficulties visualizing the immediate win they can derive by using your platform. As a result, they won’t signup for your free trial or plan.
  

💡 Solution

• Create and publish multiple product templates, allowing people to preview them before signing up. Subsequently, enable people to use the template that fits their needs best and start customizing it once they’ve signup.
  

► Quick note: It seems like a micro-growth practice, but product templates are great as a secondary user signup pathway.  

→ Types of product template categories

• By niche: Product templates that are aligned with the specific requirements an industry may have. For example, templates for Human Resources will be completely different from templates for Product teams. And that’s a distinction that needs to be made, primarily if your product provides solutions for different niches.
• By user persona: You may have different audiences. Also, your platform can be adjusted to the requirements each audience has. So instead of generating a bunch of templates, make sure to categorize them by user persona, this way aligning the design of your template with the specific needs different audiences have.
• By use case: Your product may cover different use cases. For example, if you’re providing an online form builder for SaaS marketers, you’ll want to create templates based on different jobs to be done, such as quizzes and questionnaires, surveys, and MQL forms.
  

→ Your growth opportunities

• Show the value of your product instead of just writing about it. Get your website visitors to visualize and understand the immediate benefits they can derive from your platform.
• Increase your conversion rate by providing a secondary pathway for user signup.
• Onboard your users easier, contributing to their overall satisfaction. After all, starting with a template isn’t the same as starting from scratch.
• Decrease the trial abandonment rate. The template will guide users, keeping them more time on the platform.
• Ensure your users will get a quick win. Building upon a template will allow users to complete a specific job faster and understand the value of your product. As a result, some may convert and become customers.  
  

→ Case example

>> Projector, a live presentations platform

Projector offers several template categories, such as:

• Presentations
• Instagram stories
• Social posts
• Posters and documents
• Emails
• Zoom backgrounds
  

People can select the template that suits their needs best and proceed with signing up. Subsequently, they can access the free template and start customizing it.

>> Typeform, an online form builder

Typeform provides a wide variety of templates, organized in different categories, such as:

→ Type

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Quizzes
• Lead generation
• Forms
• Remote working
• Polls
  

→ Industry

• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Customer Success
• Product
• Education
• Events
• Business
• Sales
• Freelancers
  

People can access a detailed preview of the template. They can start with a free trial plan if they find it suitable for their needs.

>> June, a product-led analytics platform

June offers multiple templates, categorized by:

→ Role

• Founders
• Product Managers
• Designers
• Sales
• Customer Success
• Engineers
• Marketing
  

→ Use case

• Engagement
• Acquisition
• Activation
• Retention
• Referral
• Revenue
  

People can browse the templates, choose the one that suits them best, and then sign up for the platform to access the template.

>> Bannerbear, API for automated images and video generation

Compared to other examples, you can’t find the Bannerbear templates easily, as their hidden in the Resources section. Still, people can access the platform through a template.

► Quick note: Tally, an online form builder, is also offering templates to its website visitors. However, people don’t have to sign up for the platform to access and use the template. They can simply start creating their form without a Tally account. To publish the form, though, they have to sign up.

→ Is this practice good for your SaaS?

Questions:

• Can I generate templates? Is this practice suitable for my SaaS platform?
• What template categories should I create?
• How long and how many resources will it take to publish a small template library?
  

Requirements:

• This growth practice is suitable for product-led companies only. You can’t ask people to “Use a template,” then instead of allowing them to signup, get them to request a demo.
• Not all SaaS products work based on templates. After all, creating easy-to-use templates is challenging if you’ve developed a CRM platform. So you’ll have to assess whether you can generate product templates or not.
  

→ How to apply this growth practice

✅ Identify the type of templates you can generate. This step depends greatly on your software. A team that developed an online form builder will obviously focus on creating form templates.

✅ Create different template categories to visualize the entire amplitude your library can take. You can categorize your template based on:

• Type of template
• Use case
• Industry
• Users’ role
• And more
  

✅ Generate your templates. If you don’t know where to start, think about the most common use cases people seek when signing up on your platform.

✅ Test your templates, making sure that customization is intuitive and hassle-free.

✅ Create a landing page for your templates library and publish your first items. Then, go live with your page. Don’t wait to create a massive collection of templates. You can start with three templates only, then release new ones on the go.

✅ Make sure people can visualize their template and access it by signing up to your platform. In other words, after they’ve signed up, make sure they’ll be redirected to the template they’ve chosen.

✅ Considering the resources that may go into building templates, it’s very important to analyze the efficiency of this SaaS growth practice. To do that, keep track of KPIs such as the number of:

• Template visits
• Signup attempts
• New user signups
• Success rate (aka from signing up to customizing and publishing the template)
  

This way, you’ll know whether you should invest more in generating templates or not.

► Quick note: Some SaaS companies enable users to become creators and publish their templates for wide use. That’s a great strategy, considering these companies are strengthening their connection with their existing users or customers. Also, that’s a great way to outsource template creation to your users, saving time and resources—one thing to consider, though, is the quality of these templates. If you want to transform users into creators, develop a quality guideline or submission protocol that will guide people to do their best when creating a template.