5 Tips on How To Be a Successful SaaS Company
SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses are highly complex models, offering a wide variety of products. And, while every SaaS company is unique, there are some key strategies that all up-and-coming SaaS startups should consider in order to succeed.
Keeping these 5 tips in mind will give you a solid start towards building a successful SaaS company.
#1: Quality is Everything
It’s not exactly a secret…but the secret to success is all about the product.
When you create a well-designed software, you create a service that people truly want to pay for, because it makes their lives easier.
However, don’t be disheartened if the first version of your product isn’t perfect. Treat it as a prototype instead, like a draft version of your service. The primary purpose of a prototype is testing, which is extremely important when building a SaaS company.
Allowing your early adopters to test your service is the best way to collect feedback and make necessary alterations. This should become a common practice for SaaS companies, which takes us nicely into our next point.
#2: Leverage Early Adopters
Your early users are a goldmine of information, and if you make time for them, they can help you get better faster. Who better to test new features than those who are going to be using them, or in some cases, those who are actively even requesting them?
The more you interact with your early adopters, the more valued they will feel. When you take the time to listen, and then actually implement their feedback, it proves that you care about what they have to say.
Check out our blog: Why it’s critical for SaaS startups to leverage early adopters.
#3: Have a Customer Success Playbook
The more you help your customers, the more they’ll help you. That’s why you should have structures in place that allow your relationship to develop as smoothly and naturally as possible.
Having a process in place for dealing with common customer touchpoints can save you a lot of time by making it easy to track communications and keep tabs on relationships.
Once you have a clear outline of touchpoints and objectives you need to address, you can start building out your customer success templates. Here are some examples:
- Product Usage: Do you need an email drip campaign to nurture new customers and accelerate their usage of your software? This could be a good place to roll out a demo video.
- Customer Savings: Do you want to make your customers feel validated for using your product? Maybe automating a monthly/yearly recap showing how much time and money they’ve saved is the perfect assurance they need.
- Product Feedback: As we’ve mentioned, customers are your best source of feedback and the best way to get better. Make it as easy as possible for them to provide feedback or report bugs, and ensure they’re alerted when you’ve acted upon their feedback.
#4: Integrate and Adapt
Do what you do really well — and then go one step further.
Some SaaS applications are easy to replace — so you need to make it as difficult as possible for people to move on from you. Make sure your solution is intertwined with the greater ecosystem of products that your users incorporate into their lives.
Ensure your solution integrates with popular apps, web services and APIs in your client’s industry.
#5: Use Educational Marketing
When customers fully understand how they can benefit from your service and trust your brand, they are far more likely to buy from you.
When you create content that educates, entertains and inspires your target market, it helps to build trust and positions you as an industry leader. Hubspot is the perfect example in the SaaS industry. It aggressively markets its services through inbound marketing using high quality, valuable content.
Also, don’t forget to market yourself to existing users — renewals are just as essential as acquiring new customers! SaaS marketers should always ensure to keep existing users informed of enhancements and show them best practices to keep them engaged and satisfied.
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