What are the best ways to scale marketing operations of a SaaS startup?

This is a very relevant question indeed, for a host of people would be at this stage of their buisness,  and I've seen some really great answers already. I am the co-founder of a Capability Management outfit, which, though not exactly into software, is into services, which we have productized first and then we are trying to deliver them through a platform as a service. These products are of consulting and certification, and we also did cross the freemium stage, but in the B2B space. I am attempting to relate to those experiences here. But since i'm blind to your product service space and the horizontals you cover, and also to your chosen client verticals, let me ride up to the pulpit first and loudly rattle off a few nagging tear-down realty checks, you'll need to give your product and buisness concept: ONE, What's your product, and how big is that holy need you suddenly seem to cover? Is it something that your washroom just can't do without, or, it's something that makes your washroom-trip a better experience all the time, and soon, can become a habit with you. Crudely... is it like an MS PowerPoint, or its like a Powtoon or a SlideRocket - value added. Please revisit. TWO: If your product is something like a hot-water plant for my washroom, then, do that research and analysis jingbang about the cost of owning the stuff, versus the rent for leasing it. Assuming, you've thrown a party on the market-size potential already, you'll need to figure out WHAT benefits can are so godforsaken worth for a customer to LEASE, rather than OWN the booty. And if you're happy that you just made the product impossibly inaffordable for YOUR customers to own, and it's better to lease or subscribe, congrats, and let's move to... , ...THREE: Since, the greatness of a SaaS idea lurks inside the software, how smart is your product's structure and how well does it lend to the prospect of selective 'leasibility'? That's the time for you to slide down underneath your product and find out what can be the really ADDICTIVE pieces in your list of features and benefits. Another thing you'll have to pore for with a flashlight is that if there are some RAZORS and some BLADES in your software. Then, you can probably follow the now too known  razorblade ploy perfected by Gillette.  Assuming you're prip and prom for commercializing your SaaS, start-off your free-lunch campaign with a clear show of what WILL be priced in the future. The biggest problem arises when we suddenly start asking money for the salad in a lunch! Call it ethics or whatever, but do have clear disclaimers built into your communication right from start, rather than as some scared finepoint stuff put at the bottom, or as an irritating popout. All along you're hooking them to your service, your free customers should get it by heart that they'll have to pay soon, and a lot more than the salad will have to be paid for. It's like sampling. Assuming, you've already done all of this, and are getting restless, one last point, before I come down from my pulpit, and suggest some of my million-dollar scale-up ploys, which you may not find worth a dime (that's the problem with ideas - you feel they're great because you sired them, but how palatable are they for those sitting on the table???) ... So I was saying... that build all possible marketing analytics tools into your product right from the word go, and keep munching numbers all along. You'll need these numbers - and these alone, trust me - to thrash out your tactics of a future scale-up. The WAYS: When I start my free sampling campaign, I would also start working with a few other companies to explore making my product, a part of theirs as a value add or as a supplement or a complement. That should be a part of the product strategy. Another trick I would try is to market complementing products from my portals, of other companies. These are efforts to diversify my options beyond relying only on converting the free customers to paid ones. And finally, I would do 'growth hacking' based on the numbers I've crunched on the free customers, and my assessment on how hooked they may now be to my services/ product. If your offering is B2B, it's not easy to target at large companies. SMEs are a good bet, and that also means keeping budgets for a strong offline component to your marketing. Hire an agency, if required. I've seen more promising products become great SaaS ideas through a strong offline promotion. Other ideas include: - Referrals, if you're in B2C - First-party Bundling with other services/ hardware/ products - Third-party bundling... when other large products can use your service as a free gift to sell their wares, and pay you a time- or volume- bombed fee or something.  EDIT: Talking about the roles, two of you should certainly dedicate to the product side; two in the business and marketing side, and the fifth should entirely concentrate on analytics that your Buisness and product and platform needs to build and grow and perfect.