It goes without saying that when customers see value in your product, they’ll be more likely to pay for it, thus increasing your conversion rates. You have to demonstrate that value in a way that elicits trust.
In this article, we’ll present you with five ways to do so, so you can nurture your leads, improve your conversion rates, and grow your business.
1. Make High-Converting Landing pages
Landing pages are often the first point of contact for your prospects as they begin to interact with your company. Those pages receive traffic from different sources and push visitors to take action—they encourage them to convert.
It is up to SaaS companies to use landing pages in the right way.
Databox, a business analytics platform, did a study on average conversion rates.
While companies that participated in the study have a conversion rate of up to 20%, many of them manage to convert as many as 20-30% of the visitors from their landing page.
Source: Databox
However, to put this into a larger perspective, the average landing page conversion rate for the SaaS industry is 3%.
In spite of this industry average, the results of the Databox study indicate that many SaaS companies are doing incredibly well in creating enticing landing pages to introduce their product and engage visitors in the right way.
How can you do the same?
First, you need to understand that not all landing pages are created equal. Depending on your business and marketing strategies, you might need to create multiple landing pages that will spur the customer into different actions.
For example, one landing page can be dedicated to acquiring a customer’s email, while another will encourage visitors to sign up for a particular SaaS product.
Let’s look at how two SaaS companies use their landing pages to convert visitors. The first one is Unbounce, a landing page builder company.
Source: Unbounce
Unbounce specializes in building landing pages for their clients, so it goes without saying that their own website has to be an example of good practices. The landing page above is for one of their online courses.
We can see that they adopted a simple approach, with concise copy explaining what the customers will gain from this particular course, combined with a picture of a person.
Using pictures of people makes customers trust the company more because it matches a face to the company. Leads see the expert that will help them achieve their goals, and they’re more likely to continue with the course.
Next, we’ll take a look at Asana’s landing page.
Source: Asana
Asana’s landing page is used for a different purpose, so the approach they take is different. Here, they’re trying to push the visitor to start using the product, so the company can later convert trial users into paying customers.
To do that, they have a good headline that communicates what the product is about. With these types of landing pages, it’s essential to grab the visitor’s attention in the first few seconds and leave a good impression.
If you can explain how your product can help your customers in the simplest of terms, as Asana does with their copy under the headline, then you’ll demonstrate your product’s value quicker.
This is likely to result in customers actually clicking on your CTA button.
Finally, keep in mind that what works for one company won’t necessarily work for another. It’s important to continually test the success of your landing pages to ensure you are maximizing their potential.
As you can see above, Asana used a white background and prominently displayed their headline to focus on grabbing attention, while Unbounce used pictures and longer copy to explain their value in greater detail.
Their tactics were different, but what they had in common is zeroing in on the problem their target customers have and expressing how their product will solve it. And that is the key to high-converting landing pages.
2. Use More Social Proof to Increase Signup Rates
How does reading these testimonials on HelpScout’s website make you feel?
Source: TestimonialHero
If your answer is that you trust the company more, then you’re one of the 85% of users who rely on online reviews when looking up a product or a company.
To entice visitors to become paying customers, HelpScout has used a tried and tested method of convincing–social proof.
People tend to use other people’s opinions and behavior to shorten the decision-making process. That’s what social proof is all about.
For example, when you see a queue behind a market stall, you’re more likely to check it out for yourself. Their product must be good if so many people are lining up to try it, right?
Every industry utilizes this psychological bias for its own gain—because it works!
Clearbit is one example of a SaaS company that changed its demo request form to include social proof. As a result, their signups increased by 84%.
First, they used demo request forms with logos from their customers, but then they started testing pages that included customer testimonials. While both kinds of social proof got them more signups, pages with testimonials outperformed the earlier type.
Source: Clearbit
Clearbit was surprised to learn that they could have such an impact on their conversion rates with such low effort.
If you want to improve your conversion rates, you should follow Clearbit’s example.
Social proof comes in many shapes and sizes, from press reports and user reviews to celebrity endorsements. In fact, combining different types of social proof is a good way to boost your efforts.
But no matter what you use, remember that it’s all about the customer’s perception and influencing their opinion of your brand.
See what Slack does to seamlessly embed different types of social proof in their landing page.
Source: Justinmind
In their headline, Slack used the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) type of social proof, emphasizing the number of people who use their product frequently.
This should have a similar effect on the visitor as that market stall with a long line of people: when they see so many people using the product, they’ll want to try it too.
Below that headline, Slack highlighted a positive review from one of their customers. The company knows that customers value positive reviews, so they made sure a highly positive review of their product is there to capture the visitor’s attention.
And finally, at the bottom of the page, they display the logos of their other customers. Slack’s intention is for the potential customer to see how many recognizable brands use their product, and thus perceive Slack’s company and product as more reliable.
The main thing you should learn from Slack and other companies is that social proof is a powerful tool for building trust. When people see that your product has helped others solve their problems, they’ll have no problem paying for it.
3. Experiment With Your Pricing to Get it Right
Don’t be like the 36% of SaaS companies that are too worried about how price changes will affect their conversion rates to make the necessary adjustments.
While customers might be critical of a price increase at first, the impact it can have on your revenue growth makes the changes well worth the effort.
The study we’ve cited shows that 72% of companies regularly rework their pricing strategies, and as a result, almost 61% see an increase in profit per customer.
If they can do it, then why shouldn’t you?
Before we show you some examples, we have to point out that there is no one-size-fits-all pricing strategy. Every company is different and monetizing products has to be adjusted to their specific needs to maximize their revenue growth.
Now, let’s look at two completely different approaches to pricing and what you can learn from them.
The first example is from Close.io, an inside sales software company. They decided to increase their prices, but they also wanted to keep current customers happy and their conversion rates high.
So how did they achieve those ambitious goals?
First, they made sure to announce the upcoming price increase to their customers ahead of time. The company used its blog and personalized emails to inform users of what’s about to happen and how it will affect the customer.
Here’s the message Steli Efti from Close sent to his users:
Source: Close.io
So, to retain their current customers, they decided to grandfather their accounts. In other words, they allowed their existing customers to continue paying the old prices for the plans they already have, but if they decided to change their plans, they would be charged according to the new pricing after 14 days.
This strategy was highly effective, and Close.io saw their customer LTV jump 10% after changing their pricing. They also managed to keep their current conversion rates.
What can we learn from this?
Informing customers in advance is important when you start changing your prices. To maintain a positive relationship with your customers, you have to be transparent about your business decisions.
After all, price changes directly affect the customers, so they need to make an informed decision about whether the new price still correlates to the perceived value of your product.
However, while Close.io was lucky and its strategic approach paid off, that doesn’t mean your company will benefit from a price increase. If you see your conversion rates plummeting after you increase your prices, maybe try a different strategy.
For example, look at what GoSquared did. As they expanded their products with more features, their pricing plans became more complex and confusing for potential customers, which deterred many of them from even trying out the product.
Simply put, the company needed a drastic change. Their original pricing looked like this:
Source: GoSquared
So many options, right? Instead, they decided to offer a flat rate for all their products.
This is their new pricing.
Source: GoSquared
The company wanted a more transparent way of communicating the value of its products to the customers and offer a price that will make it stand out from its competition.
A flat rate was easier to understand, and GoSquared could drive traffic from their competitors who insisted on complex pricing.
They also state that the new pricing made it easier to predict their growth and analyze their conversion rates.
In the end, when you compare these two examples, what they have in common is that each found success only after trying out different methods. They adjusted their pricing strategies to their product and business goals, and increased conversion rates followed.
So, remember to experiment with pricing to find the right strategy for higher conversion rates.
4. Optimize Onboarding for New Users
Think about this: even if you take a friend’s advice about trying out a new product, you will make a final decision on whether to continue using it or not only after you’ve had firsthand experience with the product.
Almost 53% of consumers as Forbes study has shown.
Source: Forbes Insights
As you can see, referrals and reviews only help you so far with successful conversions. What customers really need is a direct experience to judge a company or a product. The only way to provide that is through product onboarding.
A good onboarding process will help you educate customers about your product and provide a positive first impression. Basically, when the customers see how useful your product is, they’ll want to become lifelong users.
How can you let them see that value?
SaaS companies use many tricks to guide their new users to quickly adopt products and increase conversion rates. But they usually focus on one thing: personalization.
The simple reason for that is because 72% of customers only engage with personalized messaging.
The need to personalize a customer’s experience with the product extends to every aspect of a company’s offer, but especially onboarding.
To make onboarding a unique and tailored experience, you’ll need user data to show them only relevant information about your product. So, use your welcome screen to segment your users.
Source: Regpack
You can take Postfity’s approach, but keep in mind that you don’t need to ask that many questions to get important information.
Source: UserPilot
Now that you’ve discovered which type of customer your new user is, you can provide a personalized interactive walkthrough.
A product tour will focus on specific features relevant to the new customer’s use case. That way, you won’t overwhelm the user with the intricacies of your product, and you can quickly get them to their Aha! Moment, where they realize that your product is the right solution for them.
For example, if the user only wanted to learn how to make an email template, there’s no need to show them how to set notifications for customer feedback. Instead, it’s better to get straight to the point and provide them with immediate value.
So, remember that when you optimize the onboarding process for new users, you’re creating a converting flow that will ultimately have the biggest impact on your revenue.
5. Shorten the Free Trial Period
The first thing you need to know about free trials is that they’re the ultimate marketing tool.
Before you can even think about conversion, you need to have a way to entice visitors and introduce them to your product. Enter free trials.
However, free trials are nothing new to the SaaS industry. In fact, almost 86% of B2B SaaS companies use free trials. Why?
For starters, customers love free trials. It offers them a way to test out a product without commitment.
In most cases, customers are reluctant to pay upfront for a product they’ve never used before, so a free trial can convince them to verify the value you promised.
Source: Reply.io
It’s up to you to nurture those free trial users to become paying customers through onboarding.
This brings us to the question of how long the free trial should be. Why is that a problem? Surely, the more time people spend using your product, the more value they’ll extract from it.
That might not be entirely true. Close.io, which we’ve mentioned before, is a SaaS company that helps other SaaS companies convert free trial users into paying customers with their CRM product. According to them, most trial users spend an average of three days using a new product.
Source: Regpack
Knowing that, it doesn’t make sense to offer free trials of 30 days or longer.
Even if free trials are useful to attract customers, the longer your free trial is, the more money you have to spend to maintain your product and engage your new users. So, it will take you longer to get the ROI from customer acquisition.
To make matters worse, the customer still has the option to cancel and never come back; thus, your acquisition efforts will be in vain. If you manage to get rid of bad-fit customers earlier, then you can focus your efforts on those with higher converting potential and cover your costs quicker.
So, it makes sense to keep free trials short. But how short?
Most experts advise keeping free trials up to 14 days. This is the optimal time for allowing the customer to learn about your product and creating a sense of urgency to entice them to engage with your product for longer.
When the customer knows their trial period will expire soon, they’ll use your product during the free trial more frequently. Increased engagement usually means higher conversion rates.
Conclusion
For SaaS companies, growth results from building strong relationships with customers and improving conversion rates. Now that you’ve read some essential advice on how to do that, there is one last thing you need to remember.
Success only comes from trying and testing what works for your SaaS company. It is a long process of trial and analysis, but once you find the right strategies, you’ll be on your way to optimize your conversion rates and scale your business.
