---
title: "The Secret to SMB SaaS Distribution"
description: "Learn how successful SMB SaaS companies like Zendesk \u0026 Expensify drive growth through community building, not paid ads. Key metrics and distribution strategies revealed."
categories: ["SaaS","marketing","sales"]
keywords: ["SMB SaaS distribution","community building","Zendesk","Expensify","organic growth","customer support marketing","low-cost distribution","salesperson engagement","SaaS marketing strategies"]
ai_summary: "Discover how SMB SaaS companies leverage community building for cost-effective distribution and organic growth."
date: 2012-09-18
lastmod: 2026-07-23
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/the-secret-to-smb-saas-distribution/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

<p>SMB SaaS companies cannot afford to pay for distribution. At 2 to 4% conversion to paid rates and $5 to $10 monthly subscription fees,  the breakeven CPC for these products on search is $0.40. <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1008791&amp;R=1008791">The average Google click costs three times this</a> and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/w3i-app-marketing-costs/">the iOS average cost-per-install is more than twice as expensive.</a> </p>

<p>The most successful SMB SaaS companies (Zendesk, Expensify, Square) build communities to drive distribution. Those communities reinforce and build a brand. And the brand drives subsequent organic distribution. </p>

<p>Expensify and ZenDesk are two great examples. Expensify focuses on users suffering with the greatest relevant pain: salespeople filing expenses. Salespeople are a great target community because they try new products quickly, are very vocal with their support or displeasure and are tremendous networkers. Winning their support means thousands of tweets/brand impressions like these monthly:</p>

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/image_238_703835972)

<p>ZenDesk markets their support suite to the tightly knit group of customer support agents. They leverage the community’s pre-existing strong ties to spread the word about the product. And word of mouth distribution blossomed. </p>

<p>The product of these efforts are plain to see in search query volume:
![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/image_238_238048479)

<p>Communities hold the power to large scale, inexpensive distribution. Find the right one and harness it to grow your business organically. </p>