Tag: SaaS businesses

5 SaaS Marketing Strategies That Will Give You Result

Posted on by Ankit Thakor

SaaS marketing is a new age marketing where intangible services of software are promoted and sold.

SaaS that stands for Software as a Service is a process by which any business hires a professional application that lets users to connect and use cloud-based applications via the internet.

75% of cloud workflows will be provided as SaaS by 2021. This statistic shows the growing popularity of the SaaS business model.

SaaS provides regular updates and adds timely functionality to its service.

Since SaaS marketing is an intangible product, the offered services have to be continuously monitored & improved as per the feedback received from existing and potential customers so that you can thrive in business and expand your customer base.

The Ultimate Guide To SaaS Marketing Strategies

If you are someone who is looking to study SaaS marketing, you must understand some basic differences between the marketing of a normal product and a service that is intangible.

While promoting and selling tangible products, customers normally pay only once whereas SaaS marketing users normally pay in the monthly subscription.

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Giving products as freebies is not ideal in normal marketing; however, in SaaS marketing, it could be beneficial to give users the option to use services as freebies.

SaaS is a product of the digital age and it requires different types of strategies to make it successful for your businesses.

Here are the 5 strategies for SaaS that will give you result quickly:

1. Offering Of Free Trials Or Subscription Plans

SaaS Pricing

One of the main aspects while devising a strategy for SaaS is the building of trust among the potential and current users in the services.

Since potential or existing clients cannot see the product by touching or seeing it, the offered services should show their respect in the usage.

It can be done by offering the services for free at the initial period, so the customers can taste products and if they perceive them positively, turning them into paid subscribers is not difficult.

Even if the customer does not convert into sales, SaaS companies still get a lead for the future.

To make more potential users aware of the offered services is the goal of this tactic and it has been used extensively by many SaaS offering companies for good effect.

One of the best ways to implement this “free service” is via Instagram and Facebook Ads, where the target audiences are prompted to click on the ‘Free Trial’ button by highlighting the offered services and exclusive rewards.

Also, offering a free trial via social media makes SaaS companies reach a wider audience.

2. Talk Trigger Strategy For SaaS

SaaS StrategyTalk trigger is a strategy that offers some surprise or some incentive that is related to offered services by SaaS companies for target customers, (both existing and potential) that creates positive conversations or word of mouth.

However, it has to be relatable, repeatable, and accessible for the customers.

For instance: a SaaS company offering an extra 1-month free service for referring new clients.

While devising a strategy for SaaS talk trigger, companies must keep in mind, the below points:

  • It should not be a gimmick and must follow the promised free services or incentives.
  • It should not be a one-time activity. It should be repeatable.
  • Cost-effective in both points of view, the SaaS company in question, and user.

One of the best examples of talk trigger is to offer an incentive in the form of a rebate on the current subscription fee or extension on the paid subscription time frame.

3. Promoting Positive Reviews And Rating

Review and Comment

In the age of the internet, good ratings and positive reviews on good SaaS Company listing platforms that are given by genuine customers can create a positive atmosphere for SaaS marketing.

It is one of the best strategies for SaaS marketing that gives results.

To implement this policy, the SaaS application development companies can put a review and rating section in the ads running on social media or on their websites.

However, the rating and reviews left by the customers should be original and verified. A system can be in place to check the authenticity of the reviews.

Having positive reviews and ratings from the customers creates a positive atmosphere for the company offering services.

It gives mouth-to-mouth publicity and promotes brand loyalty for SaaS Marketing companies.

If a company has a good substantial customer base, it will help to increase your positive review and rating status.

4. SEO For SaaS Marketing

SEO SaaS

When anyone is thinking of promoting a service online, SEO is one aspect that cannot be ignored at all.

The SaaS Company can boost the selling services drastically if they follow a quality SEO practice on their marketing strategy.

SEO is a continuous activity and the following are some of the important points that can affect the SaaS marketing companies on SEO ranking:

  • Technical aspects of the Website:

Having a website that loads faster, doesn’t shut down, works efficiently, and provides easy navigation to all parts is very important. All these aspects should be monitored continuously for betterment. No one likes visiting a lagging website with poor navigation and an unattractive look.

  • On-Page Aspects As Per SEO:

The second most important part is the on-page SEO aspects of the website specifically related to all Both website and blog page content must be well SEO optimized to improve the visibility on Google search.

  • Off-Page Aspects As Per SEO:

The linking of the blog posts back to the SaaS marketing page is important. As it makes Google search engine understand how valuable your services are and for customer view-point as well. More back links mean more traffic to your website and gains to SaaS marketing companies.

5. Video Posting On YouTube Social Media And Website

Youtube

Videos have become a new age medium for communication since the advancement of 4G and now with 5G, bringing more people to video consumption.

By posting positive videos about the companies services, internal working, testimonials of existing clients, and overall positive vibes fun videos on social media like

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

etc, is a great way to make potential customers relate to your services and have a better understanding about them.

42% of users expect a response time of less than 60 minutes.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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It creates curiosity about the SaaS Marketing companies and gives insight into the company vision and work style.

Just like there is no perfect beauty in the world, similarly, there is no perfect SaaS Marketing strategy.

SaaS marketing companies need to be innovative with ideas and use a blend of services as they fit for promotion and marketing.

Conclusion:

These worthwhile SaaS marketing strategies, if leveraged, will enhance customer acquisition and lead generation for SaaS businesses.

Diverse offers avenues that marketers can explore to serve as beneficial SaaS marketing strategies, and there are endless possible combinations that work for numerous businesses.

All you have to do is to try different approaches, and with the help of consumer metrics, figure out what works. SaaS marketing is a paradise for marketers.

Are you planning to develop you next SaaS application and implement SaaS marketing strategy for your existing app! Lets discuss with our experts 

How To Put Together A High-Performing SaaS Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Jay

As per Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, SaaS marketing will deliver 75 % of cloud workflows.​ Isn’t it amazing?

The above data depicts the growing pace of the SaaS business model and the competition created by it in the industry. SaaS companies are finding it very difficult to stand out in the industry by providing products and services distinct from their competitors.

Well, for this reason, we have come up with dependable SaaS marketing strategies to help companies lead the competition.

It is more complicated than product marketing since you don’t have a tangible product to offer.

Yes, it is more difficult to tell someone that your software can help them in their daily process than selling a pair of shoes.

First, What Is SaaS Marketing?

We can say, It refers to the strategies implemented to promote software-as-a-service companies.

This marketing is exclusively unusual from promoting physical products since it has a varied customer base, distinct pricing strategies, complexity in their offerings, etc.

Since SaaS development is distinctive, marketers should use distinct strategies for promotion.

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Conclusion

These worthwhile SaaS marketing strategies, if leveraged, will enhance customer acquisition and lead generation for SaaS businesses.

Diverse offers avenues that marketers can explore to serve as beneficial SaaS strategies, and there are endless possible combinations that work for numerous businesses.

All you have to do is to try different approaches, and with the help of consumer metrics, figure out what works. SaaS marketing is a paradise for marketers.

Want to discuss more? Let’s talk!

How to keep your SaaS Startup Revenue on Track

Posted on by Jay

After an unprecedented bull run for 11 years, SaaS businesses are faced with a lot of uncertainty as they overcome the business impact of the global pandemic.

There is no fixed path ahead. The truths of each Monday are re-calibrated by next Friday. In the current scenario, agility is critical. You must look at the right leading indicators to make decisions quickly or risk getting buried under loads of data.

While revenue metrics like LTV, CAC, NRR, and Quick Ratio are solid ways to diagnose long-term trends with respect to how the business is performing, it is important to look at the leading indicators of your revenue health, and act on them before they significantly impact growth and cash flows.

Let’s dig into some metrics you should consider.

Cash Burn

Cash burn, the rate at which companies use up their cash balance or reserves, can be impacted by both revenue (inflows) and expenditure (outflows). It’s always good to conservatively assume a higher burn rate unless your business is accelerating.

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Even though there are multiple variables impacting your revenue, the key lies in being flexible and reacting wisely from an expenditure standpoint. It’s good to plan for all outcomes, and not assume you’re going to have a V-shaped recovery.

Practice conservatism and have one to three months of a runaway. This is impactful if the current situation is going to linger longer.

If your vendors are affected, reach out. You could prepay some of these expenses and probably negotiate a discount as well. A 10 to 20% discount means cash sitting on your balance sheet, which eases your expense burdens in the future

Sales Outstanding

At Andolasoft, we are seeing the DSO ratio increasing across all our clients as end customers are slow to pay in recent months.

Sales outstanding is basically calculating the time it takes for you to collect an invoice. This metric is one of the few things you can control.

If you received payment in 20 days pre-crisis, depending on the business you’re collecting from, it might take 30 to 40 days moving forward.

This could have a huge impact on your working capital. When forecasting for the next three to six months, take a closer look at the day sales outstanding ratio.

Accounts Receivables Aging Report

Given that most customers might be freezing their budgets, you may want to close payments on your receivables sooner than later.

On the other side, we’re also seeing businesses with stronger cashflow positions offering more lenient payment terms up to net-60 and net-90 days to build a stronger rapport with their customers.

A real-time accounts receivable aging report lets you see how much money your customers have paid, any outstanding payments, and current debt.

Aging reports help identify customers who aren’t paying, which makes it easier for you to reach out and negotiate payment terms.

Lifetime Value

The next thing you need to focus on is your growth sustainability. Growth should never come at the cost of profitability.

If you acquire a customer with a higher customer acquisition cost (CAC) and low lifetime value (LTV), it means you’re scaling but not profitably.

One way to balance growth and profitability is by the rule of 40. If your growth rate plus EBITDA equals 40%, it means you’re growing profitably.

In this scenario, you should ensure you’re bringing in the right kind of customers and make sure that your retention is high.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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The advantage of an LTV metric is that it gives you an idea of your customers’ quality. It also shows how well you’re able to retain them, which in turn, helps your team prioritize the accounts that are more likely to last longer than a free-trial period.

Total Credit Notes

Finally, you should be closely watching the leakage points in your revenue cycle.

The total credit notes report shows you the impact of credits and refunds you’ve offered to customers. While churn is bad news in itself, full refunds are even worse as they impact cash already in the bank.

I see some businesses restructuring their refund policies to only offer credits at this time, but it might have a significant hit on the brand. An option can be setting up internal policies, to look into the merits of each refund, then process it on a case-by-case basis.

On the other hand, acquisition teams are starting to use more coupons and discounts to close more deals.

While discounts are a great way to retain customers and continue running the sales machine, you need to watch its impact on revenue and ensure you are reporting on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and leakages correctly.

This way, you wouldn’t be pushed to a scenario where sales continues to close seemingly big numbers, but with all the heavy discounts you don’t even see its impact downstream on total MRR.

Everything you knew about growing a startup or SaaS business has been upended. You’ll be faced with making tough decisions and your commitment will definitely be tested.

But with a clear understanding of your startup’s health and how your finances are changing on a daily basis, you can navigate these choppy waters.

Planning to launch your SaaS startup? Let’s Discuss!

How To Evolve Your Saas Business In Upcoming Year

Posted on by Jay

The changing environment and the growing digitization have become the primary disruptive factors in the market. And with that, it is challenging task for companies to make their SaaS offerings stand out from the others.

This is not just about in this year. The SaaS model has evolved over the past 12 years.

The rise of cloud-based software has helped to redefine the enterprise workplace, unleashing truly mobile and collaborative workforce and new customer-facing interactions.

 

 “Most of all, I discovered that in order to succeed with a product you must truly get to know your customers and build something for them.”

– Marc Benioff

It’s also democratized IT management and stimulated a shift in technology adoption that’s transformed the way companies buy and consume products and services.

Moving beyond, the SaaS global market looks to continue with fast-paced growth.

According to Gartner, public cloud services alone are set to increase by 17% around the world to $266.4 billion in 2020.

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Meanwhile, the integration of AI with SaaS platforms looks set to propel an additional market expansion, as more and more enterprises seize the opportunities on offer to cost-effectively automate internal operations, boost productivity, and speed up delivery of personalized services.

SaaS Growth Statistics - Statista
Image Source: Statista

This could sound good to the entrepreneurs who are considering to enter the As-A-Service (AAS), as well as the existing vendors preparing to update and evolve their SaaS offering

Standing Out In A Crowded Marketplace

More than two-thirds of companies operating in the SaaS space today were formed in this last decade. And the number of new entrants also continues to increase.

With a growing number of organizations looking to benefit from the reduced costs, scalability, and convenience offered by SaaS, it’s no surprise that new market entrants are keen to capitalize on the burgeoning opportunities.

Building a strong customer relationship can be leveraged for standing out from the crowd. It will identify value-added transactions and unroll service offerings in line with changing business requirements.

This is especially relevant where private equity firms are acquiring multiple MSPs, rolling them up together, and then reducing pricing to capture market share.

This puts pricing pressure on independent MSPs, and suddenly it becomes a race to the bottom.

What’s needed is a laser-like focusing on differentiating with the best customer experience.

Actively communicate your feature changes and improvements through regular updates that ensure customers recognize you’re responsive to their evolving needs.

Staying close to customers through regular account reviews will also generate opportunities to deliver strategic consultancy and impart in-depth knowledge that improves their operations.

Finally, utilize BI and analytics to reinvent your pricing models. Tailoring pricing to individual customers will further demonstrate the truly collaborative nature of your relationship and discourage any temptation to consider switching providers.

Deliver Seamless Customer Experiences

“Every step of your customer’s journey, from first sales interaction to on-boarding and ongoing support, needs to be easy and seamless to navigate”.

Because

“if you’re not delivering a holistic service that is responsive, accurate, and timely, no customer will commit to a long term relationship”.

User Experience

An effective on-boarding process that is manageable, intuitive, and interactive should include actional walk-throughs of key features and functionality.

You will also need to provide a help center and additional resources, plus a checklist for users to work through.
Utilizing the professional service automation (PSA) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) tools will help ensure you’re able to gain complete visibility and control of your customers’ environments and can institute process improvements to serve them better.

From automating routine tasks to enabling accurate billing, the effective management of support issues, and keeping track of SLA performance, customer satisfaction depends upon your ability to deliver more than just promises.

Scalable Service For All Industries

Ensure your product can be easily integrated with the customer’s platform. It will make it easier for users to augment their internal processes with your services and products.

In recent years there’s been a growing trend towards SaaS companies moving away from delivering a broad range of business functions and focusing instead on the delivery of vertical-specific software solutions built for clear industry niches.

Focused on the concept of customer success, these solutions often incorporate industry-specific data governance capabilities and tailored features that can be easily adapted to the demands of the user base.

Providing opportunities to create new ecosystems, featuring partner organizations, moving into the delivery of vertical SaaS platforms opens the door to co-marketing opportunities and the incorporation of new technology features through the utilization of APIs.

Refresh Your Approach To Marketing

Delivering content that meets the needs of prospective and existing customers is the key to retaining your market position and becoming a recognized industry leader.

From content marketing that showcases your expertise and builds brand awareness to adopting good digital marketing tactics designed to boost audiences in a wider range of geographies, aligning your marketing activities and messages to specific buyer personas will yield positive outcomes for your business.

By keeping your finger on the pulse of the current challenges customers in your target market are facing, you will be able to refine your offering and educate current and potential customers on how your solutions solve their problem.

To build ‘stickiness’, initiate portals that enable customers to share successes and best practice with peers, gain access to subject matter experts, and acquire new knowledge.

Indeed, building a user-group community is once again becoming central to initiating stronger customer bonds and more informed relationship strategies that generate value-add for everyone involved.

You’re probably already familiar with the often-stated stat that acquiring a new customer is up to seven times more expensive than retaining an existing one. But there’s one instance where that isn’t true: customer referrals.

By creating a simple, rewarding referral program, you can turn your best customers into your most vocal and passionate fans.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

In doing so, you not only increase the return on investment from every customer, but you can grow your client base without increasing your marketing spend.

And since everyone involved gets something out of it, referrals can increase customer satisfaction, too.

Warping Words:

Today’s customers want to have personal relationships with the companies they do business with.

To thrive and survive in an increasingly competitive landscape, SaaS businesses must strive to cultivate strong, collaborative, and strategic relationships that are personalized to every client.

That means delivering clearer communications, one-to-one check-ins, and better, more timely, insights.

Ultimately, unifying personalized solutions with technological innovations and consistent service delivery that demonstrates you’re paying attention will be the key to maintaining your position in a market that’s characterized by constant disruption.

Want to evolve your SaaS product? Let’s discuss.