How to grow SaaS revenue with partnerships

Tactics and strategies to get more pipeline

Author

Daniel Hebert
August 29, 2025

This week, we’re digging into partnerships. So I decided to invite my friend, Greg Digneo, to help run through some strategies and tactics.

Greg Digneo is the founder of Content Guppy where he helps b2b saas companies increase MRR through partnerships.

Each week, he breaks down how smart companies like beehiiv and Monday.com use partnerships to acquire customers at scale. Check out his newsletter here (contentguppy.com/partnership-newsletter)

The year is 2016.

I was the second hire in a marketing department of a bootstrapped SaaS.  I was relatively new to SaaS marketing.  And I had one mandate:  Get Trials.

We had next to no money to spend.  We had no brand authority to leverage.  And absolutely no processes.

But beyond that, I had to freedom to try a lot of ideas.  My motto was “don’t ask for permission, beg for forgiveness”.

Eventually, we had two things work: 

First was SEO.  But to be honest, for a new SaaS starting now, I wouldn’t jump into SEO.  Things are much different than they were 9 years ago.  It’s more competitive, less effective, and much more volatile.

But the second tactic we got to work was partnerships.  We would work with other companies to get more users.  And the beauty of partnerships is that they worked then, they work today, and they’ll work a hundred years from now.

Table of Contents

What is a Partnership?

When most people think of a partnership, they think of a loose agreement of “hey, I’ll send you leads, you send me leads”.

Or “if for every customer that you send over, we’ll pay you $X”.

But raise your hand if you’ve tried that and it didn’t work.  I know I have.

To me, a partnership is an agreed upon plan that two companies (or people) will execute that will be mutually beneficial.

The key phrase is “an agreed upon plan”.

Let me share some examples of partnerships that almost all SaaS companies can use to increase MRR.

Co-Branded Content

Co-branded content is when two companies team up to create a piece of content like a research report, an ebook, or case study, that showcases both of their expertise and reaches both of their audiences. 

For example, an email marketing SaaS might collaborate with a landing page builder to create an ebook or blog post on “How to Convert More Traffic Into Customers.” 

Both companies promote it to their lists, driving net new leads and building credibility. 

Joint Venture

Joint ventures are deeper partnerships where two companies collaborate on a shared offer, promotion, or even product. 

This could look like a time-limited bundle. Say a CRM and a billing platform offering a “Get Set Up for Growth” package for early-stage SaaS founders. 

The two companies may even split revenue or cross-sell each other’s tools during onboarding. It works best when the customer overlap is high and there’s a clear shared outcome.

Integration Partnerships

An integration partnership is when your SaaS product directly connects with another tool, and you both promote the integration. 

For example, a time tracking tool that integrates with project management software like ClickUp or Notion might create a shared landing page and send launch emails to both user bases. 

This adds product value and provides a reason to reach out to new potential users who already use the other platform.

List Swaps

List swaps are when two companies agree to promote each other to their email lists, usually with a dedicated send or a featured mention in a newsletter. 

If you’re a customer support SaaS, you might feature a customer feedback tool in your newsletter, and they do the same for you. 

There’s no money exchanged, just mutual exposure. It’s one of the fastest ways to grow your list with qualified leads who already use adjacent tools.

Guest Hosting

Guest hosting a webinar means you run the content, but it’s hosted to someone else’s audience. 

For example, if you’re a SaaS founder with a churn-reduction tool, you might run a tactical webinar on “How to Improve Onboarding to Reduce Churn” for a customer success platform’s email list. 

You handle the presentation; they handle the promotion. It’s a powerful way to showcase your expertise, build authority, and get direct exposure to warm, qualified leads.  And in return, they can host a webinar to your list.

Why are Partnerships Beneficial?

Inherent trust

88% of adult consumers will buy from a brand they trust.  When you partner with another company who has an audience, you are inheriting the trust that they’ve built with their audience.

So you’re not starting from scratch.  They go into a demo more trustworthy than if they were cold. I’ve found this makes all the difference with increasing the velocity of a sales cycle.  

New Audience

You get to introduce your products and services to a new audience.  Imagine doing an email swap, and the other person has “only” 1,000 people on their list. 

That’s 1,000 new inboxes your product is going to be featured on that day.  

Win-Win

SEO is a zero sum game.  If we’re competing for the top spot for a keyword, one of us has to win and the other has to lose.

There are only 10 spots on page one (and really, after spot #5, it doesn’t matter that much).

But with partnerships, both of you can win.

You’re going to get new users.  And your partner is going to get new users.  

No Budget Required

With PPC or social ads, there’s a budget needed.  It can take 10’s of thousands of dollars to dial in the messaging.

Then if you’re a bootstrapped company, you need to make sure the ad pays itself back in 3 to 4 months.  Otherwise you’ll go broke.

With partnerships, there is no budget required.  The up front cost is the labor that is needed in order to do the outreach and make the assets

Size of Brand Doesn’t Matter

Big brands tend to dominate search.  It’s much easier for a bigger brand to rank for a keyword than it is for a small brand.

And big brands tend to be able to dominate social ads.  They can outspend you to acquire customers.  They don’t need to worry about 3 month payback periods.  

But with partnerships, you negate that disadvantage.

The size of your brand doesn’t matter.  You can always find companies your sites that serve your customer who will be willing to partner with you.

Don’t compete with the big brands at their game.  Work around them.

Bonus:  Very Scalable

Partnerships are very scalable.

When I was working at the software company, we would run 1 partnership per week.  We had a roster of 12-15 partners with whom we had a great relationship with.

And we would simply rotate them.

Sometimes we would outgrow a partner and we would replace them with someone who was about our size.

But the point is, this isn’t a one time marketing activity.  You can stack partnerships week over week, quarter over quarter and see outsized gains in MRR.

Let’s Get Your First Partner

Now that you know what types of partnerships exist, and the benefits of a partnership program, let’s get your first partner.

Just follow this step by step process

Create Your Dream 100

The very first thing we do when we’re working with clients is to create a dream 100 list.

This is the list of partners that you want to work with.  Very important: be realistic about who you are as a company and who will be willing to work with you.

For instance, if you’re looking to partner with a CRM, Salesforce and Hubspot may be a bit out of your league.  Who are companies that are about the same size as you?

Here’s a checklist of how we filter our dream 100:

Type of company:  Are they a SaaS company?  A newsletter?  A media company?

Audience Size:  Are they bigger than you?  The same size as you?  Smaller than you?

Audience Overlap:  Do they serve the same audience as you?

Relationship Status:  Do you know them?  Do they know you?  

Win for Partner:  Why would your partner do this?

Win for You: What do you want out of this partnership?

Here’s a spreadsheet that I use to create my Dream 100.

Reach out to Partners

Your outreach is going to vary depending on how well you know the person you’re partnering with.

For instance, I know Daniel fairly well.  We talk on LinkedIn often.  We’ve had Zoom calls.  So this was a fairly easy ask.

This was my pitch to Daniel.

Note: Daniel has a bigger list than me which is why I offered a 2 for 1.

Now, let’s say I didn’t know Daniel, here’s the pitch I would have made:

Hey Daniel

I was reading some of your LinkedIn content and this post really resonated with me:

When I was at a Bootsrapped SaaS, we decided to go up market.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  Pretty soon, we had account managers and lifecycle engineers.  It dramatically changed the dynamic of the company.

Anyway, I have an email list of about 200 or so SaaS founders.  I thought maybe they could learn from you.  And your audience could learn from me.

Would you like to do a content swap?  I’ll teach your list about SaaS marketing and you can teach mine SaaS sales?

I think we’ll each pick up a few dozen email subscribers.

Let me know if you’re interested.

Greg

Pitch Value

Make sure you very clearly spell out the win for the partner.  In this case, the win for Daniel is growing his email list.  

Partnership onboarding

Congratulations!  If you’ve sent out 10 partnership requests, I have no doubt that you got at least 1 yes.  (Compared to cold outreach spam for a sale, partnership requests get crazy high responses.)

Here’s what do do next.

Create a Partner Kit

Once someone says yes to partnering, don’t make them do all the work. 

Make it easy for them to promote you. 

A Partner Kit gives them everything they need to share your product confidently and quickly. 

It saves them time, makes you look professional, and helps campaigns get off the ground faster.

Here’s what to include:

One-pager about your product

Give your partner the cheat sheet. 

This should explain what your product does, who it’s for, and why someone should care. Keep it skimmable, use bullets, bold headlines, and short paragraphs. 

Think: problem, solution, results, credibility. If you’ve got case studies or proof points, drop them in here.

Sample email copy / social copy

Most partners won’t write their own promo content. 

That’s your job. Provide plug-and-play copy they can use in email newsletters, LinkedIn posts, or even DMs. 

You can include a few variations depending on the tone of their audience.  Make one short and casual, one more detailed, one with a clear CTA. 

Bonus points if you add subject line options and formatting (bold, italics, emojis,  if that fits their brand).

Lead magnet links

If the goal is to drive leads, you need a landing page that converts, and your partner needs the link to it. 

Don’t just send them to your homepage. Create a dedicated landing page tied to the partnership, ideally with UTM parameters so you can track results. 

If you’re offering a lead magnet (like a free tool, checklist, or case study), make sure it’s front and center. And make sure it aligns with the partner’s audience pain points.

Host 15 minute onboarding call

You always want to get on a quick 15 minute call with your potential partner.

This will allow you to clarify the goals, timing, and assets needed to execute the partnership.

Also, partners that I to talk to (vs. email) are more likely to become long term partners than just one offs.

This quick call will grow your network, not just a transactional relationship.

Execution and Campaigns

The best part about partnerships is that they don’t have to be a one time thing.

They can build on each other.

For instance, when I was at the software company, one of our best partnerships started out as a guest post on their blog.

Then we did an email list swap.  We followed that up with a co-branded webinar where we invited both lists to the event.

And then we built integrations and did a full launch with that.

This partnership went on for several years.  Both of us acquiring millions of dollars in new users over that time frame.

Tracking, Attribution, and Optimiation

Partnerships aren’t just about good vibes. They’re about results. And if you can’t measure performance, you’ll never know which partnerships are worth doubling down on or which partnerships are just noise.

Here’s how to track what matters and optimize over time:

Track leads and ROI per partner

Start simple: for every partner you work with, track how many leads they send your way and how many of those leads convert into customers. 

If you're running a lead magnet funnel, track email sign-ups. If you're going straight for sales calls, track booked meetings and closed deals. 

The goal is to get clear on partner-by-partner performance so you know who’s actually helping you build your pipeline.

Create UTMs

UTMs are non-negotiable. They let you track where traffic is coming from and what it's doing once it lands. For every campaign or piece of content a partner shares, create a custom UTM link. 

You’ll want to standardize your naming conventions (e.g., utm_source=partnername&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=month) to make reporting clean. 

Analyze, double down, and scale

Once the campaigns are live, check in weekly. 

Are certain partners consistently sending quality traffic? Are some lead magnets converting better than others? 

Look at the data, identify the top performers, and then lean in. That could mean running a second campaign with them, offering a deeper incentive, or turning one-off promos into quarterly placements. 

The more you optimize based on real results, the more efficient  and scalable your partnership engine becomes.

Now that you know how to execute a partnership, it’s time to build your pipeline.

Build Pipeline

The real value of partnerships isn’t just exposure, it’s pipeline. And that only happens when you’ve got a funnel designed to convert.

Here’s how to turn partner traffic into real conversations and customers.

Funnel Design (Lead Magnet → Micro-Yes Thank You Page)

Let’s start with the first step: capturing leads.

You’re going to need a strategic lead magnet — something people actually want to download. But it can’t just be fluff. It needs to do two things:

  1. Attract the right audience. If you're selling to $10M+ SaaS CMOs, your “Top 5 Facebook Ad Tips” isn’t going to cut it. Instead, think about something like:
     “SaaS Growth Benchmarks: How $10M–$50M Brands Are Scaling in 2025” — interview real CMOs, compile insights, and make it need-to-read material.

  2. Move the prospect closer to a sale. Ask: “If someone downloads this, what would make them more likely to buy from us?” The best lead magnets create a gap — between where the buyer is now and where they want to be. Your product should be the bridge.

But here’s where most marketers drop the ball: after someone downloads the lead magnet, they send them to a generic thank you page. Or worse… a little popup that says, “Thanks.”

You just got someone to say yes!  Don’t waste that momentum.

Use a Micro-Yes Thank You Page instead.

It’s based on the psychological principle that small commitments lead to bigger ones. 

That’s what a Micro-Yes Thank You Page is designed to do: stack the next yes.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

Paperbell — a SaaS product for coaches — uses this perfectly.

  • Their lead magnet is called “28 Packages from Real Coaches.” It attracts the right buyer (coaches who want to charge more) and positions Paperbell as the solution.



  • When someone downloads it, they land on a thank you page that says:
     “Your download is on the way. While you wait, try Paperbell for free.”



  • Then it briefly explains what the product does and how it helps.

That’s it. Simple, elegant, and wildly effective. In 2024 alone, this funnel drove just under 32,000 leads.

But the beauty of this strategy isn’t just in the conversions today.

Let’s say only 4% of people who see the thank you page sign up for a trial. That’s still over 30,000 people who saw the pitch and didn’t convert… yet.

Because you collected their email, you can now nurture them over the coming weeks — which brings us to the next step.

Lead Nurturing (Newsletter)

Your thank you page got you a lead. But your newsletter earns the trust that closes the sale.

Think of it like this:

  • The lead magnet was the hook.

  • The thank you page was the invitation.

  • The newsletter is the relationship.

Use your newsletter to consistently provide value, showcase customer wins, share behind-the-scenes strategies, and reinforce what makes your product or service unique. 

You’re not just nurturing a lead. You’re building familiarity, trust, and eventually, demand.

Wapping Up

Here’s the TL;DR on how to increase MRR through partnerships:

  1. Create your Dream 100

  2. Reach out to partners most likely to say “yes”

  3. On-board them to ensure maximum results from that partner

  4. Stack campaigns to see exponential gains

  5. Track and double down on what works

  6. Build your pipeline

Implement this partnership funnel day after day, week after week, month after month, and you will be sure to increase your pipeline.

If you enjoyed Greg’s tactics, I highly recommend you subscribe to his newsletter here.

For more practical early-stage sales tips, connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for more hands-on help implementing your first sales process, reach out for coaching packages.

Here’s what Patrick had to say about coaching with SalesMVP Lab:

Reply to this email or book a quick coaching call if you’re at $20k+ MRR, have good pipeline, but struggling to consistently close deals.

P.S. I work with founders who are struggling with figuring out their sales process. I also work with founders with small sales teams (or founding AEs) who are struggling to transition from founder-led sales to sales reps. Ping me for help.