Many people who start SaaS businesses consider themselves founders, entrepreneurs, or developers and do not often consider themselves marketers. In the early days of running such a business, the one thing that should be on your mind is growth. There is a lot of potential for growth for any SaaS business in the current technologically driven world, but entrepreneurs can only achieve that growth by having appropriate strategies in place. Here are some tips to help you with your SaaS business’s growth.
Focus on User Needs
As with any other business, you should check that there is an appetite for your software. Consider what it brings to the market before you think about launching it. This can be achieved through extensive research. Small-scale tests before and after releasing the product will also help you know if there is an appetite. It will also give insight into how to tweak your service or product to fit the market better.
Once you understand what the market needs and know there is demand for your solution, release it but keep working on it. Users need change, and you have to stay ahead of the curve if you do not want people to switch to your competitors. Your product should be flexible enough and easy enough to use. Most people will stop using a product if it has a steep learning curve or is difficult to use.
Build Long-term Customer Relationships
Businesses that continue to see growth every year maintain great long-term relationships with their customers. To do this, you have to keep your customers happy. The first step is providing a quality product they would be happy to use and recommend to others. Other things you can do include providing continuous value, providing timely support, and dealing with any issues that come up immediately. This will help to minimize issues with the product as much as possible.
Find Ways to Acquire New Users
SaaS business models are flexible and setting up such a business is usually a matter of having a good product that fulfills a need or solves a problem. Because this model is easy to understand, many people mistakenly think acquiring new customers will also be easy. Because of the sheer number of SaaS businesses, acquiring new customers is typically one of the most challenging and costly aspects of running such a business. Having a good product is often not enough, so SaaS businesses have to have a customer acquisition model.
At the center of this model is knowing who to sell to. The best place to start is by developing buyer personas. It is difficult to know who to market to or how to market without buyer personas. Buyer personas define your ideal customer and should be at the center of your SaaS marketing strategy.
Before you create any ads, post on social media, or start marketing your business in other ways, think about who your ideal customer is. Consider what drives them, what their pain points are, the language they speak, and how they define success (how your solution can help). Also, think of what other aspects make them who they are.
Once you have the buyer personas, you can implement strategies to attract and maintain users. In addition to conventional marketing (social media, etc.), offer free trials, or tweak your pricing. You should also know how to target your users where they are. Consider how you can work on your product to provide an incentive for users to want the product.
Simplify Your Pricing Model
There are so many great SaaS products out there that are held back by their pricing model. Research has shown that people are less likely to purchase or subscribe to a service if they do not understand the pricing model. No one wants to go through your landing page, dig through options, and decipher cryptic language. If users cannot understand what you have to offer at each price point, they are unlikely to get on board.
There are various models to choose from, including per-user pricing, per-customer pricing, or pricing according to the features users want. You can use people who fit your user personal to help you pick a pricing model that would work for those kinds of customers.
As with most businesses, many entrepreneurs stumble at the growth stage once they start their SaaS business. However, a great product, a good understanding of your customer, marketing, and proper market positioning can help. With these it is possible to see year-over-year growth of your business.
Source: https://www.mikegingerich.com/blog/4-growth-tips-for-saas-businesses/
