Why This Page Exists
Most founders think “marketing” means “picking channels.”
The foundations are:
- Customer research — talking to customers so you know what they actually need
- Positioning & messaging — making your value obvious in 10 seconds
- Website that converts — turning visitors into signups or demos
- CRM & tracking — capturing and following up with every lead
- Email workflows — keeping the conversation going automatically
I call these the marketing bricks.
Imagine building your SaaS without version control, without analytics, without a login system. Sure, you could technically launch, but every new feature would be fragile.
That’s exactly what happens when you start doing “growth” before laying the bricks.
- You run ads → your site leaks visitors because the CTA is buried.
- You write content → nobody reads because they don’t know what you do.
- You get leads → but they vanish because there’s no follow-up system.
This page exists to stop that.
It’s a founder’s first 30-day marketing plan — one you can follow even if you’ve never done marketing before.
The 30-Day SaaS Marketing Roadmap
The Foundations-First Approach
The first row of marketing bricks — in order — is:
- Customer Research
- Branding & Positioning
- Website That Converts
- CRM & Tracking
- Email Workflows
You can get these live in 30 days. Then, in Days 31–90, you’ll add your second row of bricks: content and distribution.
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Week 1: Customer Research — Talk to Humans
Week 1 is where you stop guessing and start listening. Without this, everything else is just trial and error.
Your goal: Collect the exact phrases customers use, so your positioning and copy write themselves later.
What to do this week
- Start with what already exists: read customer interviews, reviews, Reddit threads, or support tickets to see how people talk about the problem.
- If you can, supplement with 3–5 short interviews (friends of friends, current users, or warm intros).
- Don’t aim for volume — aim for language. Capture the exact words people use when they describe their frustrations and desires.
- Ask questions that get stories, not yes/no answers: “What’s the hardest part about [problem you solve]?”“What have you tried that didn’t work?” “If you could fix this overnight, what would change?”
- Capture their exact language — don’t turn it into jargon
💡 Story: DropEvent (a group photo collection SaaS) originally described itself in generic terms like “a simple way to collect photos.” After interviewing users, they discovered people kept saying, “I just need an easy way for everyone at the event to dump their photos in one place.”
We changed their headline to “Collect, organize, and share photos with anyone” — using almost exactly the customer’s phrasing. Signups jumped, because visitors immediately “got it.”
Week 2: Positioning & Brand Personality
If Week 1 helps you hear how customers describe their problems, Week 2 is about turning that language into clear positioning and messaging.
Your goal: Make it clear that you get the customer and can solve their problem in 10 seconds or less.
What to do this week
- Positioning: Spell out who it’s for and why it’s different. Be specific: name the audience (not “everyone”), the problem they care about most, and how your product solves it better than the alternatives.
- Messaging: Boil that positioning into a one-liner that anyone can repeat back to you. Then add 3–5 proof points (features, social proof, results) that back it up. Your goal is that in 10 seconds, someone new can “get it.”
- Tone of voice: Decide how you sound when you show up in writing. Do you want to feel like the confident expert? The friendly guide? The irreverent challenger? Align this with what will resonate with your audience.
💡 Story: Image Chart used to lead with a generic line about “generating charts from data.” After studying how users described their needs, we rewrote the headline to “Instantly create beautiful charts”
That tiny shift — from vague feature-speak to a clear, above-the-fold benefit — immediately made visitors think: “Oh, this is exactly what I need.”
Week 3: Website in a Week
By Week 3, you’ve got the words. Now you need a place to send people. Your website is where positioning turns into signups.
Your goal: Ship a clear, conversion-focused site — fast.
What to do this week
- Draft copy from interview notes to match the framework you chose
- Send the copy drafts to the experts in your company on product and your customers who can fill in knowledge gaps
- Setup the styleguide in Figma
- Start building the landing page wireframe based on the copy flow chosen
💡 Story: With Teleprompter, after two months of market research, customer interviews, and content testing, we:
1. Identified the winning use cases and created content around them to drive rankings
2. Doubled website traffic from 3.5K → 7.7K in just two months
3. Increased domain rating from 28 → 34
Week 4: CRM, Marketing Analytics & Email Workflows
Your product has a backend. Your marketing needs one too.
Your goal: Automate follow-up and measure performance. Track where signups come from, see what’s working, and keep leads engaged without manual effort.
What to do this week
- Pick a CRM and connect it to your forms.
- Install analytics for site + product (GA4, Mixpanel).
- Draft 3–5 onboarding and follow-up emails:
Day 1: Free trial welcome → get them from “free” to paid by highlighting the aha moment
Day 2: Post-call follow-up → recap discussion, share promised resources, and define next step
Day 3: Testimonial request → ask after they’ve hit success or had their “aha” moment
Day 4: Announcement + feedback ask → launch a feature, then invite user input
Day 5: Goody bag delivery → send something genuinely valuable (template, tutorial, in-depth content) in exchange for their email
💡 Story: Adding just two onboarding emails with GIF walkthroughs boosted one founder’s activation rate by 22% in two weeks.
Days 31–90: Your Second Row of Bricks
With the first row live, you can start creating ways for people to find you.
Week 5: Content Plan & Channel Research
Pick your first content format based on real customer questions:
- What questions are they asking that don’t have good answers yet? (Check Reddit, Slack groups, Quora, support tickets, competitor blog comments.)
- Where are they asking them? If it’s in communities or social feeds → think LinkedIn posts, threads, or short videos. If it’s in Google searches → write blog posts, guides, or comparison pages.
- What’s the best format to answer clearly? A quick explainer video, a detailed tutorial, or a case study — match the format to the depth of the question.
Week 6: Distribution Push (Community Marketing)
Push distribution = you actively putting content in front of potential customers.
It’s dynamic — you have to keep showing up. Examples: Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts, professional Slack groups, niche forums.
So, for week 6, find the rooms where your buyers already gather — then share useful answers, templates, and insights there. Lead with value; let promotion come second.
Week 7: Distribution Pull (SEO, Marketplaces, Integrations)
Get listed where your buyers already look: marketplaces, app stores, partner directories.
Then create “problem-first” content for search: instead of writing “Why Our SaaS Is Great,” write posts that directly answer the questions people type into Google — the pains they already feel. (e.g. *“How to stop chasing screenshots across Slack”* → then show how your product solves it.)
Also Read: I stepped into the quagmire of CDPs so you don't have to 🫨
Week 8: Evaluate & Adjust
Look at your analytics and CRM data through the lens of experiments, not vanity metrics.
Metrics to track (north stars):
- Demo booked rate (not just email open rates)
- Signups or activations (not just traffic)
- Cost per acquisition vs. customer value
Guardrails (warning signs):
- High drop-off rates from quality leads
- Great conversion rate but cost per lead too high
- Lots of clicks but no downstream conversions
Questions to ask:
- Did this channel/experiment move the north star metric we set, or just vanity numbers?
- Are we bringing in the right type of leads (quality, not just quantity)?
- Is the cost reasonable compared to the value of those leads?
- Should we scale, tweak, or stop this channel based on the data?
Foundations Toolkit
Before you start, bookmark these:
- SaaS Marketing Glossary – Every term in plain English.
- 30-Day SaaS Marketing Plan Template – PDF version of this roadmap.
Next Steps
You now have a clear first 30 days. This isn’t theory — it’s a sequence that works.
Primary CTA: Don’t want to do this yourself? I can do it for you. Let’s talk about your marketing.
Secondary CTA: Convinced you can DIY it? Download this plan as a week-by-week checklist
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