How PoweredByText Used Service-Led Distribution in a Saturated Market

Powered By Text is one the fastest growing companies in our SaaS database. They sell 2-way SMS software (i.e. texting your audience) specifically catered towards churches and non-profits.

As you can imagine, a "simple" product category like this has hundreds of competitors, and even when you niche down to churches there are still several.

The way they've been able to grow so fast is through a sales method that I'm seeing pop up more and more in successful SaaS products today: service-led distribution.

Powered By Text Snapshot

Overall, they don't have a ton of traffic, but it's very high quality and they have a high LTV.

Website traffic: ~5,000 monthly visits, mostly branded and direct
SEO performance: Ranks first page for "SMS for churches" and "SMS marketing for churches"
Pricing: Starts at $250/month, though most organizations will have much larger contact lists than what it starts at.
Distribution: Began as ministrybytext.com, a service-led platform offering consulting to churches and ministries; evolved into a SaaS product with service baked in
Engagement: Minimal social media presence; low engagement on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.
Main use cases: Communication with supporters (needed for announcing and coordinating events), plus fundraising outreach (this is the main one)

Positioning

Still, since there are so many large SMS providers, you need to offer more than just general features, otherwise there's no reason to use a niche version. Similarly, there are other SMS platforms for churches and non-profits that pre-date Powered By Text, so they also need to position against them.

There are 3 main categories of alternatives to their product:

Generalist SMS tools: SimpleTexting, EZ Texting, SlickText, and tons more.
Developer/API-focused: Twilio, Messente (most churches won't go this option)
Niche SaaS players: Tatango, Text In Church, Flocknote, PastorsLine, Givebutter Plus, String, Rally Corp all target churches/non-profits.

Differentiation

There are many ways to differentiate from other SaaS businesses, and in this case they focused on:

Hands-on service and strategy: Every customer must have an assigned dedicated account strategist with experience in this niche. Not everyone wants that, but many value it highly, so you rule customers in or out with this approach, which is good for differentiation.
Compliance: Texting for fundraising and promotion comes with huge fees if you cross the line to spamming and get charged (like over $1,000 per text message) so having enterprise compliance and background experience as a main focus is a strong selling point for Powered By Text.

Can You Apply This Yourself?

If you have a strong background in any field where results matter a lot from a particular product, this strategy of customer acquisition is really powerful, especially if you are someone who struggles with sales (which most SaaS founders do to be fair).

Identify a product category where outcomes are measurable and valued: Pick a SaaS niche where users care about achieving specific results, not just having features.
Bundle service with the software: Offer onboarding, guidance, or expert strategy as part of the product to reduce risk and increase perceived likelihood of success.
Focus on a clearly defined audience: Target a segment where your expertise matters and your guidance can make a real difference.
Sell results, not features: Lead with the impact your service + software combo delivers. For example, "we help you achieve X outcome faster, safer, or more efficiently."

Alternatively: Offer a niche one-time service upfront and use that to drive adoption: If you want to do a more "normal" SaaS subscription product, you can still make use of service-led distribution. You provide hands-on service initially that involves using your product, then let them continue on their own as subscribers. This works best for sticky products where once you set up workflows for them (e.g. automations, templates, reports, etc.) they won't want to migrate to other products.

Key Takeaways

Powered By Text succeeds not because of feature breadth, but because it combines expert service + compliance + SaaS accessibility, creating a low-risk, high-trust solution for nonprofits and churches.
In a crowded niche, the winning positioning is "software + hands-on expertise + measurable outcomes" rather than chasing marginal feature differences.

For market entrants, service-led, results-oriented SaaS remains a solid defensible and meaningful path in this space.