The great thing about SaaS is that everything can be optimized, and results are quick to show.
Just making a few necessary changes in your product, ads, or onboarding process can improve your conversion rates and make your revenue grow with it.
If you think your revenue can use some fattening, then check out these helpful tips to boost it.
1. Focus on the Right Features
Keep your customers satisfied and your revenue growing by focusing on the features they want.
While it is tempting to pump out all kinds of features you think might be useful, it is vital to collect the data first.
Ask relevant questions so you’re not stuck with something that might not work out.
In the development process, make a list of all the essential features that you need to prioritize.
Customer satisfaction and revenue growth should be your main goals, so think about the costs of each feature and what effect on users it will have.
Then, make sure to delegate tasks to relevant team members.
Even though data collection and analysis might seem like an easy job, giving it to the right person will be better than you doing it on your own.
Proper planning allows you to hit two birds with one stone. You’re keeping your customers happy and nagging your development team about the most important features.
2. Improve Your Company’s Credibility
If your company has a good reputation, customers will value that and be far more likely to do business with you.
People value consistency and transparency.
Everything you put out about your company and products should be consistent. Practicing what you preach and continuously delivering on the promises you made helps build trust.
Another way to boost credibility is to showcase achievements.
We all love to win and brag about it, don’t we? Broadcast your successes far and wide, from retaining your first customer to winning awards in your industry.
Show potential customers that doing business with you will help them achieve great things.
Find a way to spotlight your achievements on your website, newsletter, or any other way you think will build your credibility.
Probably the most helpful way to improve your credibility is to provide testimonials from your existing or past customers. At Regpack, we have client spotlights, besides standard testimonials.
In fact, 85% of customers admit that they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends.
Go over your positive reviews and highlight them front and center.
Those will be the first things your potential customers will see, so send emails to satisfied customers to ask for a testimonial, conduct surveys, and scroll through social media to put them on your website.
Building credibility is a complex process, but the rewards are well worth the trouble.
3. Reduce Churn
Think about different ways you can provide value to your customers, and you will reduce churn rates.
The best way to make them more engaged from the beginning is through good onboarding.
You should use this opportunity to show them how to interact with the essential features of your product. Quick wins during onboarding are easy steps towards integrating your product into their daily lives.
Another way to reduce churn is to charge upfront.
Once the customer makes the purchase decision, they are more likely to stick to the product to get their value.
They will use the product more frequently, and eventually, a good part of them will adopt the product and use it every day.
However, perhaps the best way to reduce churn is to create a community with your customers.
People love to be a part of a group and share their experiences.
So, creating a loyal community for your company and products is a great way to foster positive buzz about your company and create advocates that will attract new customers.
While caring about your customers is essential, you should always keep an eye on your competition.
Take a look at the features they offer, pricing plans, and onboarding experience. Maybe there’s something you can emulate in your own business.
Improving your product is just the first step in reducing churn. Keeping your customers happy and engaged is what keeps churn rates low.
4. Keep Free Trials Short
Most companies offer free trials to get customers hooked. The only question remains, how long should the trial be to ensure satisfactory customer conversion?
The length depends on your product and its complexity, but the general agreement is that it should be under a month for 99% of SaaS products.
Shorter trials motivate customers to use the product more frequently and get to know its features.
When you give them more time to use your product, they’re also more likely to put off trying it out and forget about it.
Another bonus of a short free trial is that it reduces the CAC for your sales team.
If your customers need more time to get to know your product, have your sales team contact them and offer to extend the trial version for them.
Converting those customers is more valuable than wasting time on those who won’t even bother to look at your product once the trial is done.
It’s more important to focus on keeping customers who are more likely to convert. They are the ones you can turn into advocates and long-time users that will keep your business growing.
5. Expand Your Reach Internationally
While some reports show that global expansion could lead to 13% of revenue growth, you should seek opportunities that have the most sense for your company.
The primary benefits of global expansion include access to new markets and a larger pool of customers. More people using your product means more money in your account.
Another great benefit is that it helps you boost your reputation and build your brand. Companies that expand internationally are perceived as more reputable in their home regions.
Still, beware of some of the most common problems:
- Cultural differences
- Language barrier
- Currency and payment differences
- Regional laws and taxes
Logistics can be tricky, even if you’re expanding to an area that might seem similar to your own.
Considering all these problems and hiring the right staff to bridge the gaps for successful expansion is vital.
If you see a demand for your product in other countries, the next thing you should do is market yourself there.
You can start with ads in the local language for higher click-through rates. Remember to translate copy on your landing pages and emails for higher signup rates, as well.
Everything from pricing lists to thank-you pages should be personalized to your target market and the customer’s country.
It helps conversion rates tremendously, especially in countries where English isn’t the first language.
Be very mindful of how you approach the entire onboarding journey. It might require more investment, but it can pay off.
SaaS is becoming too saturated, and certain regions more so than others. International expansion can be your answer to expand your customer base and revenue.
6. Improve Signups
Trial signups are a driving force for customer conversion and revenue growth.
66% of all signups happen when visitors go to your website the first time. The average signup rate is 4.7%, but that number should reach 11% for optimal business growth.
We’ve already covered some tips on how to make your signup form interesting, but here is some more advice on how to improve it.
First, you should provide incentives. If customers think they can gain something from you, they’ll take it if it’s relevant to their lives.
Pick a freebie you can offer them: an ebook, downloadable guide, or a template. Then, you can expand on that with online courses and short consultations.
The more relevant and intriguing it is, your signup rates are going to skyrocket.
Next, forget about asking for their card information upfront.
People are more suspicious of websites that ask them for card details before they’ve even accessed the product.
The only time you should be asking for that is after they’ve finished their free trial and gained value from your product.
The primary purpose of an effective signup process is to get people to use your product and find value in it. Once that match is made, you can benefit from higher conversion rates.
7. Invest in PPC and Social Media Advertising
If you’re not using social media in any capacity to promote your company and your products, you’re seriously missing out.
Social media has become a powerful tool for marketing because almost half of the world’s population is using it. Or, to give exact numbers, that’s nearly 4.3 billion people.
Even B2B businesses increasingly use social media to learn about new products and services.
Think about how many potential customers are on different platforms that you can easily convert and grow your revenue.
Which platform you choose is up to you, but you should utilize it to your best advantage.
One popular way is to use social media as a storefront.
Make your content around your product and showcase how to use it, and set up links to click through to your product. You can also set up Q&A sessions to get more engagement.
Google ads are another common way to promote yourself. PPC is the best way to expand your brand awareness and target the right customers. Whenever you Google for some software, a few Saas companies’ ads is the first thing you will see.
PPC (pay-per-click) is a model of advertising where advertisers pay a fee when someone clicks on their ads.
This is a helpful model for all SaaS companies, no matter the stage of your business.
PPC ads help test the market and experiment with different audiences for startups, while mature SaaS businesses use PPC metrics to appeal to investors.
Social media marketing is essential to grow your business quickly and reach your target customer base.
8. Invest in Email Marketing
When you’re planning your marketing strategy, don’t forget to include emails.
It’s easy to focus on ads and social media for more extensive outreach, but your first point of contact with potential paying customers is email.
Whether they read or delete your emails, they have to interact with them in some way.
The SaaS industry has an email open rate of 21% on average, which is pretty standard across different sectors. Still, there are ways you can improve these numbers for your company.
Before you start your email campaign, think about what you want to accomplish. Your email copy needs to reflect your goals.
If you want more signups, then emphasize the benefits of your product. If you want more conversions, then give them reasons why they should upgrade to premium.
The most important tip is to tailor your email content to your subscribers.
Learn about their needs, customer profile (non-paying vs. paying), and onboarding experience to send relevant emails.
Once you do that, try automation for quicker scaling. When your business grows, switching to automation is a time-saving method. User behavior will trigger certain types of emails.
One mistake companies make is to only send strictly promotional emails. This will quickly put you in the spam folder.
You want people to stay subscribed so sending them a mix of promotional and educational emails is a good solution.
You can also tweak these preferences. Allow your subscribers to decide which type of emails they prefer.
9. Adjust Your Pricing
Choosing the right pricing is essential for revenue growth.
You’re probably undercharging your products right now. Perhaps it was a conscious decision to drive more traffic and entice customers—but it might be time to adjust it.
Did you know that by increasing your prices by 1%, you can see an increase in revenue by 11%?
It’s tempting to keep your prices low, but not at the expense of your business growth.
We’ve already covered different pricing strategies SaaS companies use, but here’s why it’s essential to adjust it as your business grows.
It comes down to two things: providing value to your customers and having a competitive edge.
You should focus on those customers who see value in your product and won’t mind spending more to continue using it.
That segment of your customer base already integrated your product into their daily lives, and they’ll likely stay despite the price increase.
Optimizing your pricing should be strategic. Avoid focusing on those customers who are a bad fit and prioritize those who will increase your revenue.
10. Rely on Upselling and Cross-Selling
Acquiring new customers is costly, so look at your customer base and decide who you can convince to upgrade their plans and who is an easy convert.
Instead of jumping hurdles to get to that new customer, you can just walk to your existing ones and offer assistance to solve a few more of their problems.
This is where upselling and cross-selling come in.
The biggest benefit of these methods is that it increases customer lifetime value (LTV).
Some statistics show that when high-growth companies converted free users to premium users, their conversion rates were between 8-20%.
Upselling is a practice of offering a larger package, and cross-selling is offering additional products.
With upselling, you’re trying to convince your existing customers to upgrade from their original plan.
For instance, look at MarketMuse.
They offer a three-tier plan with different pricing and as the price goes up, so do the offers with a greater number of features.
Their trial is short and provides basic features to get their customers interested in their product.
They also offer rewards after a customer finishes a trial and makes a purchase, to entice them about their paid plans further.
When it comes to cross-selling, you increase the value of your original offer by adding extras or offering discounts.
Here’s how Freshdesk does it.
They offer three different add-ons to the customer’s original plan (priced £55), and with the number of extra features, they raise the price.
Attractive copy further motivates the customer to opt for one of the offers.
To better understand your upselling and cross-selling opportunities, you need to look into the behavioral patterns of your customers.
How they use your product and where their experiences can be improved is valuable information. It can help you target them at the right time and offer an upgrade.
You should also think about giving them the autonomy to make the upgrades themselves.
Then, once they realize that they need more than what they’re currently getting, they have the option to upsell on their own.
Upgrades and add-ons are the best cost-effective way to grow your business.
11. Allow Different Payment Options
Simultaneously with adjusting your pricing strategy, you should think about allowing different payment options in order to increase your revenue.
Take into account the diversity of your customer base and different preferences when it comes to payment.
It is even more important for global companies to look at the availability of different payment options in specific regions.
Allow your customers to add multiple cards (if one of them expires or gets lost), and choose their preferred method (direct transfers, PayPal, or other platforms).
When working with international customers, don’t forget about local currencies and exchange rates.
For B2B SaaS, another option is advanced payments. If you offer discounts with that, they might be more favorable towards your offer.
Having different payment plans can help you generate revenue in different intervals, just when you need financing. So negotiate your methods and offer longer plans for high-yielding customers.
Discuss different payment options with your customers and push for advanced payments as much as you can.
Apart from that, you should implement a system that will help you overview the history of all your transactions and quickly identify failed ones. Involuntary churn is the main problem when it comes to payment. You can reduce it by investing in the right software that will help you with this process.
Check out RegPack’s offer for billing and payment solutions.
12. Use Events and Networking
When you think about SaaS, you don’t usually think about in-person networking and events. Instead, this business model is famous for automation and moving all of its marketing strategies in the digital sphere, so in-person events might seem outdated.
But you’d be surprised how effective they are.
Almost 76% of B2B marketers reported in-person events were their most successful funnel engagement tactics.
Digital might be cheaper, more accessible, and trackable, but it lacks a human touch.
More and more customers want a meaningful connection with the products they use and the companies behind them.
Focusing on events and networking might be the way to stand out in the growing digitally saturated market.
Providing a human connection is the edge your competitors can’t replicate with technology.
Industry events are important networking spaces that can put your name alongside some bigger competitors.
In addition, appearing in numerous industry events can help you position yourself as an industry authority.
Also, one event can fuel your marketing strategies for a long time.
Your email newsletters and social media can be filled with relevant content for weeks before and after an event has taken place.
Even though events only offer a limited amount of attendees, you’re still reaching more people and a wider audience than if you’re just sticking to digital marketing.
13. Leverage Referrals
People are more likely to buy based on a friend’s recommendation, and that’s why most businesses with referral programs thrive.
Companies have seen profits rise to 13.2% per referred customer, and their LTV increases by 16%.
Here are some tried and true referral methods that helped some startups become household names:
- Bonus cash – for every new customer that joins, the company offers the referring user a money bonus in exchange.
- Discounts – when someone uses a referral code, the referring user gets a discount or a reduction in their bill.
- Reward points – a certain amount of points is added to a customer’s account, which can then be redeemed for various services or discounts.
- Added value – companies add more value to the customer after their referral code is used. Dropbox offers their customers an expansion on their existing storage up to 32GB (but only for their premium users).
Here’s an example of Airtable’s reward system.
What are other advantages of having a referral program?
One, it makes people talk about your products and company. They spread awareness to friends, strangers, or acquaintances that help promote your brand.
Second, it reduces your CAC because all your cost comes down to whatever incentive you provided your customer in exchange for a referral.
Also, new customers that came through referral programs are more likely to remain long-term users.
Overall, referral programs are a good way to acquire new customers, but keep in mind the value you’re providing as well, to make them stay long-term.
14. Retarget Old Customers
If you’ve exhausted all other methods of increasing your revenue, your final solution is to retarget your old customers.
Unfortunately, you can’t bank on customers suddenly realizing they were wrong.
They had their reasons to abandon you and changing their minds about your product has to be done carefully.
There are two main strategies you can try.
The first is remarketing. It’s a way for advertisers to target customers based on their previous online activity.
With remarketing, you also reach more potential customers and different markets than you would in standard sales practice.
As a result, remarketing as a strategy helps you optimize your sales funnel.
For example, targeted messages that reach customers with a higher potential to convert are more successful than sending out ads to everyone.
Another strategy is retention optimization. This strategy is more about understanding your user base and optimizing their customer experience.
Before you jump in and start emailing your old customers, examine their history of use and user profile. This will help you identify their concerns and the reasons they canceled their subscription.
Most of them will probably fall into the ‘lack of usage’ category.
When customers are not properly engaged, they will use the product less and eventually cancel.
Once you recognize significant drops in login activity, it’s time to grab their attention and bring it back to your product.
Sometimes people need to be reminded of how great your offer is and what you can bring to their lives, so strategize your remarketing and retention plans.
Conclusion
Scaling your revenue can be difficult if you don’t know where to start.
You might be tempted to invest more into advertising, referral programs, or expand internationally, but there are some less demanding changes you can make to boost your revenue.
Try adjusting your pricing, focus on upselling and cross-selling and improve your credibility as cost-effective ways to grow your revenue.
In the end, no matter what you do, having more money in the bank is always welcome.
