A successfully scaled SaaS business looks like a well-oiled machine.
Every function is optimized to deliver results while keeping costs low. Everything works so efficiently that you’re able to keep adding customers and revenue without having to add resources or support staff.
But how do you do that?
Well, offering a high-quality and user-friendly product is the first step in gaining traction and increasing subscriptions.
But that’s not all.
If you want to continue to grow, increase revenue and scale your SaaS business, here are some strategies you must follow.
1. Optimize Your Teams
One of the most important factors in scaling your SaaS product is the talent you hire.
You need people who understand your goals and vision behind the product, and who can make decisions regarding its future development.
Therefore, hire people who are as passionate about your product as you are.
These are the people who will work hard to improve it, bringing new ideas to the table on a daily basis.
Listen to their suggestions and implement them if you think they will help with scaling your SaaS startup.
2. Set the Right Price
The pricing strategy plays a crucial role in determining the long-term success of any SaaS company.
With increasing competition, you can’t afford to overprice or underprice your product.
That’s why you need to experiment with different pricing packages to see which combination works best for your SaaS. A/B testing and market testing can help with this.
3. Reach Out to Influencers
One of the best ways to get your product in front of potential customers is through influencer marketing.
If you can find someone who has the same target audience as you do, they may be willing to promote your product in exchange for money or even just a complimentary subscription.
If possible, reach out to influencers who have used your product before. You can ask them to put your product’s name in their next post.
You can do this using different channels — YouTube, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Wherever you think your target audience hangs around mostly. For some brands, LinkedIn can be a really great option.
4. Leverage Referral Program
How do you get more customers? By asking current customers for referrals!
But it can be difficult for a customer to remember to refer someone, so you need to make it easy for them.
Incentivize them with a reward or discount, and provide multiple methods of sharing that referral.
With an email, share button, and Embeddable widget — a referral program can multiply the number of people who see a referral link or message.
Therefore, referral programs not only help you get new customers but also improves your customer retention since users love to get rewards. But how do you do that?
5. Make Product Adoption Easy
If your customers don’t know how to use your product or don’t understand why they need it, then there’s a good chance that they won’t continue using it or paying for it either.
Make sure that every step of the adoption process is as easy as possible for them.
This includes everything from actually downloading/installing/using your product to managing their account.
6. Secure Your Sales Funnel with Analytics
One of the most important aspects of scaling your SaaS product is using analytics. Once you’ve got a steady stream of users coming through, you’ll want to make sure they stay with you and buy into the paid version of your service.
Make sure you’re able to track what pages users visit and where they drop out in order to improve the user experience and sales funnel.
Analytics can identify areas in your sales funnel that are slowing lead generation and negatively impacting conversion rates.
It can identify new opportunities for increasing customer acquisition strategies and scaling your SaaS.
7. Rediscover your Sales Strategies
Sure, you’re selling subscriptions, but sales strategies still need to evolve as your business grows.
If you sell directly to users, you may be able to manage your sales efforts with just one or two reps, but as your user base expands, you’ll need a larger sales team.
And if you sell through partners, it’s important to assess whether that strategy makes sense for your business long term.
It can be difficult to maintain control of brand messaging and pricing when selling through partners, which can affect your bottom line.
8. Refine Your Marketing Efforts
You may have started out with a simple marketing strategy, like posting on social media or making blog posts.
But as your company grows, you’ll need to refine those efforts.
For example, you need to focus on the right channels and make sure your marketing strategy is providing social media engagements.
If not, keep experimenting, do a market analysis and produce fresh strategies that give you results.
9. Leverage SEO and Multichannel Marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO) might sound like a no-brainer, but it still is overlooked by funders.
Consumers have a tendency to research products online before making a purchase, and that includes B2B buyers too.
Not only that but as your business grows and you put more good content out, your organic reach increases — giving your free customers eventually. That’s why it’s important to have an SEO strategy in place.
Once you have a solid SEO strategy in place, you can start investing in other marketing channels like social media and email marketing.
The best part about these two channels is that they aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they work well together to increase brand awareness and boost conversions.
When you only focus on one channel, you are leaving out potential customers who prefer different platforms.
For example, some people may prefer social media while others prefer email marketing. With multichannel campaigns, you can reach both audiences instead of just one or the other.
10. Use a Freemium Model
A freemium model offers a free version of your software. Users can sign up for free and start using the software. This allows you to generate leads and collect data from users that are interested in your product.
The freemium model allows you to understand if your product is solving a user’s problem or not, without having to spend money on marketing and sales
With a freemium model, you can then decide which features you want to make premium (paid) and which ones you want to offer for free
11. Customer Satisfaction Is Still the Key
Customer satisfaction is extremely important because if your customers are happy with your product — they are more likely to stick with you and recommend you to others.
The most important thing to consider here is the customer experience (CX) or user experience (UX).
We all know that the customer experience is important for all products, but in SaaS, it’s even more crucial.
This is because in SaaS you are selling a recurring product so if your customers aren’t satisfied with their monthly subscription, they will probably cancel it and choose another provider.
Summing Up
When you are growing your SaaS business, you will inevitably have to scale at some point.
And while it’s important to give the attention necessary to scale up in the short term, it’s critical that you don’t sacrifice long-term success for short-term gains by prioritizing too many initiatives.
To maintain a healthy long-term growth trajectory, you need to focus on these strategies.