SaaS firms have taken over the software world and will continue to destabilise major areas of the economy.
There is no doubt that technology has fuelled this shift. It is now faster and less expensive than ever to produce software. With five billion people accessing the internet in 2022, the potential client base for SaaS enterprises is immense.
Over the last few years, the SaaS sector has risen fivefold. It was worth $31.5 billion in 2015, and it is now worth $176.62 billion.
SaaS is cloud-based software that is used online instead of installing an app on each device. This implies that businesses do not have to spend time manually installing or updating software.
This business model has several benefits, which is why an increasing number of firms and companies are shifting to the SaaS model.
However, having the best SaaS products in a company is not without difficulties, particularly if you are new in the field.
So, in this article, we will discuss 7 steps to implementing a successful SaaS strategy.
7 ways to implement a SaaS strategy
- Conduct customer research
- Build the right team
- Establish the right SaaS SEO strategy
- Conduct product trials
- Set the right KPI
- Be ready to make changes
- Communicate
1. Conduct customer research
A consumer is an individual or organisation who has the correct balance of reasons to act and invest resources or money in your SaaS software.
Customer research is your company’s lifeblood.
Agreed. It is not a child’s play to choose a product that employees truly need, produce content that promotes sales, and pinpoint your top prospects (let alone convert them) without customer analytics.
You want to ensure that your target clients are ready to pay for your solutions and that your offer addresses problems that they are eager to manage. These types of things may be evaluated and modified through market analysis and prototyping, avoiding potentially harsh lessons before even writing a line of code.
Do not miss this step, no matter how huge or clear the problem is. It’s common to believe that a customer already exists for your envisioned product, yet in fact, they may not have the exact incentives that you projected.
2. Build the right team
Businesses with over a thousand workers utilise more than 150 SaaS apps to provide great services and remain ahead of their competition.
With increased digital literacy, practically any employee may create a SaaS application without alerting or getting clearance from IT departments. This also implies that anybody may become an app owner, resulting in shadow IT, overlapping apps, and unnecessary cloud expenditures. That is why it is critical to put up a software implementation staff that will push the program to success.
Smaller businesses should have at least two people working on the new system: an acting admin and a teaching lead. The interim administrator should ideally be an IT professional with expertise working directly with suppliers.
The training lead is often the individual who utilises the system on a regular basis and is the go-to person for questions and issues regarding it.
Larger businesses, on the flip side, will require a much larger crew. In addition to an interim admin and a training head, there is a functional lead, project manager, technical lead, and a process improvement specialist or team. This group of specialists is known as the advisory board.
3. Establish the right SaaS SEO strategy
What is SaaS SEO? SEO for SaaS enterprises differs greatly from SEO for other businesses. SEO for SaaS companies extends beyond concentrating on certain keywords. Marketing material will be used to elaborate on subjects on your website. The idea is to attract searchers who are unsure of what they are searching for.
Implementing a SaaS SEO approach is difficult. It is not the same as selecting a list of keywords for the content. SEO has gotten more sophisticated as competition has increased online.
SaaS is a highly competitive sector that is becoming increasingly difficult. Your SEO SaaS approach must be strong. Your plan must be sophisticated and broad in order to address every aspect of your site’s structure.
Generating traffic for your website is the first crucial stage in any SEO plan. You must constantly nurture traffic with intriguing and relevant content. You must also design your site such that conversions are simple.
How successful are your current action calls and content? An assessment will reveal any gaps, as well as what is keeping consumers from converting. A conversion rate assessment will provide you with a performance score that will show you how well you are selling.
4. Conduct product trials
Product trials are increasingly becoming an important source of leads for the SaaS industry. Nothing beats test driving a product. If you don’t already, your company should consider offering a trial on your website.
Trials are a very successful lead-generating technique if you’re marketing to a tech-savvy population that prefers to try the product before speaking with a sales professional. Since product trials are often self-serve, you may continue to create leads while investing little in a continuous promotion.
However, a few constraints must be mentioned. You should consider giving some onboarding or help, based on the intricacy of your solution and your unit costs, to ensure users have a satisfying experience when testing your product.
This might be done via automated emails, one-on-one calls, group webinars, or a mix of the three.
5. Set the right KPI
Setting specific KPIs and metrics for measuring product performance allows you to keep focused on the reason for you creating a solution. Small changes to your plan, if made too frequently, might increase costs and gradually deviate you from the scope of the main project. Before you know it, you’ve developed a brand new product that’s essentially of not much use to your or someone else’s business needs.
6. Be ready to make changes
There is a reason why most successful businesses engage change management professionals. It is frequently their responsibility to manage the disruption that results from removing an obsolete system and adopting new methods of operating. It is critical that the teams and individuals who will be using the new tools accept the change as enthusiastically as the planning and implementation department.
One strategy to ensure a smooth SaaS adoption and bring everyone on board is to use an established change management technique and clearly define the advantages of the new service.
Embracing change completely also entails gaining the support of corporate stakeholders. Nothing is more aggravating than unforeseen hurdles in the middle of a project’s implementation. That is why excellent communication routes and accurate documentation are critical.
7. Communicate
When the SaaS development process begins, all groups and team individuals must contribute. Notifying everyone about the SaaS implementation approach will not be enough. You should communicate with your team members and staff on a frequent basis to ensure that they grasp what is going on. Furthermore, encouraging cross-departmental collaboration and communication will provide the best outcomes.
Collaboration improves communication by enabling open interaction between individuals and divisions. It contributes to the development of a universal understanding, guaranteeing that everyone engaged is on the same page with the aims and expectations of the firm.
To ensure that everybody understands what is being stated, try to utilise common English rather than IT or SaaS-related jargon. Maintaining deeper ties among everyone engaged will result in better results and a more adaptable business.
Get your SaaS product out there
Marc Andreessen declared in a major WSJ column in 2011 that “software is consuming the planet.” Indeed, it has.
While the starting process for a SaaS company may be narrowed down to seven steps, each component will require time, testing, and improvement.
As an example, fuding is not something every SaaS company will look for in the initial days of its launching. Furthermore, your business plan will undergo a continuous process of drafting and reviewing throughout its lifecycle.
The main aim of every SaaS strategy is to get the product out there. If you have a realistic plan, metrics to monitor success, and a willingness to iterate, your company is more certain to thrive and succeed.
Author bio- Tuba Sarosh
Tuba Sarosh is a result-driven SEO content writer and editor, who helps businesses turn their readers into clients. She writes about trends, tips, how-tos, and other cool stuff that helps businesses serve their customers better. When not writing, she’s either reading a good book or experimenting with recipes.