Hi! recently ive been reading constantly about distribution and marketing so i wanted to share my 2 cents from my exp, i have several years as Cto, and worked in 2 unicorns as senior software dev. First there is one simple rule that applies without failure .
If your product its for consumption or one time usage, marketing in social networks and establishing a pipeline from a link to buy the product works, ie landing page, call to action, buy not to buy, usually they are the type of get your zodiac reading and shit.
On the other side if your product its a service, please, please please i beg you not to waste money in marketing , with a decent SEO over 80 score youll be fine, successful companies put people in charge of the sales process + integration this could be the same person , or you can couple a sales man + technical person, saas often need several steps of migration + configuration + validation in order to be productive for the clients.
Ive never seen self onboarding work for a Saas unless its a standardized technical product as stripe (tons of documentation + validated after years), every time i see the self onboarding trap that Ceos fall under i see that company fail, onboardings redone 3, 4 times to get the same results, marketing campaigns that get signups for a free product never gets purchased or upgraded, good saas take the pain of onboarding and config of their customers its our job to prove that your service works, and establish a symbiotic relationship with your customer workflow, to check this just cut your service 1 day if you have a good saas you will get contacted immediately to have it up. Summary: Match your go-to-market motion to your product's integration burden. Most founders reverse that, then wonder why signups don't convert. 😄