Click here to get this post in PDF
Software as a Service (SaaS) has seen a considerable surge in recent years and is forecast to grow by 18% between now and 2023. For those who are involved with SaaS software, this spells very exciting potential but, as with any business, there are challenges to be overcome. In order to help make your SaaS business more profitable, you will need to build value and work on selling the service to paying customers and eventually even selling the business itself. There are numerous obstacles that can make this challenging, while there are also opportunities to be taken advantage of. Here’s a look at a few tactics that can help make a significant difference to your bottom line in 2021.
Offer a Product Tour
68% of people prefer to watch a video to learn about a new product. This means that if you offer a product tour video, more people will learn enough about your product to go to the next step. A product tour should clearly demonstrate what the product does and, more importantly, how it is beneficial for anybody that uses it. Some companies may even go a step further and create a tour that is personalized specifically for a potential client.
Of the people that do complete a tour, around 39% will not finish it and these people are obviously less likely to buy from you. One way to improve this metric is to create an interactive tour that can increase the completion rate by around 50%. More tour completions means more people signing up for trials, and this means more paying customers. Don’t forget to also include a progress indicator because this can improve completion rates by a further 12%.
Offer a Trial
SaaS software can be downloadable software or software on a server that’s accessible by the internet. This makes it easy to allow people access to the product for a limited amount of time without having to mail the product out. Potential customers can then use the software as a trial run before being asked to make a commitment to buy the product. However, up to around 60% of users who start a trial will use it only once and will not buy.
To help overcome this you should do more than just give your customers access and then leave them to it. Studies have shown that a SaaS business that engages with people trialing their platform is 70% more likely to see them convert to paying customers. Be sure to engage with them and ask them if they have any questions, help them, and demonstrate how your product is useful to them. Once they are happy, speak with them about your prices and try and close the deal.
Take Advantage of Review Sites
You’ve probably noticed the plethora of sites on the internet that review products and SaaS software are the focus of many of them. Studies have shown that around 88% of people trust online reviews, presenting a marketing opportunity that should not be overlooked. Do what you can to get yourself mentioned on review sites and you could see a boom in new customers. Getting yourself noticed by review sites can also create backlinks to your website on more authority domains – which would give your SEO a boost.
You can try reaching out to these review sites and ask them to have your product included. You will need to be smart about it, however. If the feedback you have received so far is not good then it is best to wait until any issues have been fixed and the feedback improves. Otherwise, you could end up with a lot of negative reviews on the internet and it doesn’t take a marketing guru to know that is not a good thing.
Use Your Knowledge Base as a Marketing Tool
Many SaaS companies will also already be sitting on a treasure trove of marketing material and just not be aware of it. A prime example is your knowledge base and, if used right, it could be a very effective marketing tool. Think about it – people often use Google to find answers to their questions, and your knowledge base has many, many answers to provide. This presents a superb opportunity to get your business noticed by people who have an interest in what you offer.
Remember to bear SEO in mind when creating your knowledge base, or consider optimizing any existing content you have. Also, considering that by 2025 more than 72% of web searches will be made on a mobile device, so make your content mobile-friendly. You should also include appropriate CTAs on your knowledge base content to help direct visitors to your home page, or other pages that help guide them through your funnel.
Collaborate with Partners
Many SaaS products integrate with other products or at least help to benefit them in other ways. Having this in mind, other companies might be willing to scratch your back so you can continue scratching theirs. This opens the door to some great opportunities for companies to collaborate with each other to help improve each other’s business.
You could consider offering a deal where customers get a discount on bundles including both of your products. There is also the option of cross-marketing each other’s products to help boost revenue in a way that will also offer more value to your customers. Working together on events is another possibility that could help benefit both parties considerably. Get together with a potential partner and you could come up with some ideas that will make a serious positive impact on your bottom line.
Conclusion
In many cases, the answers to improving your profits are already just waiting to be tapped into. You might find that the resources and relationships are already in place and just need to be taken advantage of in the right way. If you follow the points above, then you could see a significant improvement in your bottom line.
You may also like: 6 Business Trends for 2021
Image Source: Pixabay.com
