{"id":739,"date":"2025-01-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/03\/the-rise-of-free-saas-tools-as-lead-magnets-how-marketers-can-take-advantage\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T12:00:00","slug":"the-rise-of-free-saas-tools-as-lead-magnets-how-marketers-can-take-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/03\/the-rise-of-free-saas-tools-as-lead-magnets-how-marketers-can-take-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of Free SaaS Tools as Lead Magnets (& How Marketers Can Take Advantage)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Wiz\u2019s Head of Marketing Tom Orbach says, \u201cMini tools are 10x more powerful than free trials.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n

For the last 20 years, tech marketers have been giving away e-books and PDFs. I think Orbach would agree that this era is coming to an end.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to AI, no-code, and outsourcing, the smartest tech marketers are now giving away mini software tools \u2026 entirely for free.<\/p>\n

This is something I like to call \u2018free tool marketing.\u2019<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n

What is free tool marketing?<\/h2>\n

In MBA speak, free tools are referred to as \u2018loss leaders.\u2019 A loss leader is a free-ish mini product that gets customers to buy a bigger product.<\/p>\n

For a perfume company, it might be a free sample of perfume at the mall. For my hometown gas station, Wawa, it was free coffee every Tuesday in 2024<\/a>. Now, in tech, the norm is to give away free tools to get you in the door for paid ones.<\/p>\n

But how do you figure out which mini tool(s) to build?<\/p>\n

There are two main ways:<\/p>\n

\n1. <\/strong>Look for low-difficulty, high-volume keywords.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n

The goal here is to snag a little bit of traffic that may be interested in your paid software.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not gonna rank for your niche\u2019s main keyword overnight, but mini tools are like mini bets. Each mini tool gives you a better shot at ranking higher for your most important main keywords.<\/p>\n

Use tools like Ahrefs<\/a> to find keywords that are low-difficulty keywords with a KD around 0-5 with as high volume as possible. Even as low as 1,000 searches\/month is good to start.<\/p>\n

For example, the keyword \u2018social media manager jobs<\/a>\u2018 has a keyword difficulty of 0 and 7,200 searches per month. If you\u2019re an AI resume writing tool or a hiring platform like Indeed, you could spin up a free AI resume writing tool specifically<\/em> for social media managers looking for jobs.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example: The keyword \u2018Instagram giveaway template<\/a>\u2019 has a keyword difficulty of 5 and 500 searches per month.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an image creation platform like Canva or an ad agency that helps brands do Instagram giveaways, you could create a free AI Instagram giveaway template generator using something like OpenAI\u2019s DALL-E model<\/a> or Midjourney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n2. <\/strong>Look within your product for features that could be free tools.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n

Do you have any existing features that could be free tools?<\/p>\n

For example, if you\u2019re a personal finance app, maybe it\u2019s a compound interest calculator. Or if you\u2019re a video editing software, maybe it\u2019s a free video resizer. The options are endless.<\/p>\n

Pro tip: <\/strong>Obviously, don\u2019t give away all your software\u2019s secret sauce. But most times, you\u2019ll be able to find at least one feature to offer at no cost.<\/p>\n

What This Looks Like in Practice<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s use me as an example.<\/p>\n

I run a meme marketing software called Memelord Technologies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Late one night, I couldn\u2019t sleep. So, I did some deep digging for keywords on Ahrefs and saw that the keyword \u2018meme png<\/a>\u2019 was low-difficulty and high-volume (0 keyword difficulty and 4,000 searches per month!).<\/p>\n

I already built an AI background removal tool for memes, so I took that feature and spun up a Free Meme PNG Maker<\/a> It\u2019s the exact same feature \u2014 just given away for free.<\/p>\n

And sure, I\u2019m paying a little bit of API fees every time someone uses the tool, but I\u2019m already seeing signups from it for free (and with zero promotion!).<\/p>\n\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another personal example.<\/p>\n

I also saw that the keyword \u2018marketing memes\u2019<\/a> was both low in keyword difficulty and relatively high in search volume (2 keyword difficulty and 1,200 searches\/month).<\/p>\n

So, what did I do? I created a tool for marketers to get inspiration for memes: a basic no-code, searchable, filterable gallery of marketing meme<\/a> examples.<\/p>\n

Like the meme PNG creator, I\u2019m already seeing signups from this free tool using just straight SEO \u2014 no promotion required.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not the only example out there.<\/p>\n

Newsletter platform Beehiiv launched a free LTV calculator<\/a> to calculate the lifetime value of your subscribers. HubSpot has a free AI search grader<\/a> that helps you evaluate your brand performance in AI search results. Wiz launched a free QR code generator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And I have good news:<\/strong> You don\u2019t need to be a VC-backed business or a big brand to build free tools.<\/p>\n

How Marketers Can Get Started<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m a bootstrapped scrappy founder building free tools, and I first learned about this marketing tactic when I was Head of Growth at Product Hunt.<\/p>\n

I saw these crazy solo founders, and I realized you don\u2019t need to have a million-dollar budget anymore to build free software. (In fact, it may even be easier for solo hackers and startups because there\u2019s less oversight, little to no bureaucracy, and minimal need to prove definite ROI.)<\/p>\n

Marc Lou<\/a> is one such solo software founder and huge advocate of free tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a developer, and I love building apps,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut I also need marketing to pay the bills. Free tool marketing is symbiosis. It consists of launching free and viral mini-apps to promote your main startup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lou recommends the following guidelines for the best results:<\/p>\n

The tool must be free \u2014 that\u2019s how you create a viral loop.
\n One feature is enough. It must be super simple.
\n The name should tell exactly what the tool does. That\u2019s how people remember and search on Google.
\n The experience must start on the homepage. Visitors shouldn\u2019t sign up or click links. <\/p>\n

Matt Merrick is another solo hacker building free tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve built over 100 free tools. And every time, I\u2019m amazed by how well they perform,\u201d Matt told me via DMs on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process is simple: I start with a keyword related to the site I\u2019m working on (like \u2018color\u2019) and ask ChatGPT for free tool ideas around it. I only target low-competition, high-search-volume keywords to rank fast and drive traffic.<\/p>\n

Free tools naturally attract views, backlinks, and domain authority. My site Niche Tools<\/a> has 20+ free tools on it and is starting to rank bringing in free sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merrick dedicated his entire career to free tool marketing.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because we are entering the era of free tool marketing.<\/p>\n

Free e-books are so<\/em> 2010s. The 2020s and beyond are all about free software.<\/p>\n

So, let me ask you: What free tools can you build?<\/h2>\n

Think about it for a minute. Take a minute to look through your product for free feature ideas. Head over to Ahrefs\u2019 keyword generator<\/a> (another free tool) to optimize for search.<\/p>\n

Then, grab a Red Bull, go build some free tools, and launch \u2018em!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Wiz\u2019s Head of Marketing Tom Orbach says, \u201cMini tools are 10x more powerful than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}