The digital world is very exciting and is always getting better every day. For the technical sales professional, it means unending possibilities of closing the deal. Any opportunity that will increase your conversions is worth looking at because it increases your revenue. One such opportunity that has been tried and tested is the SaaS business.
SaaS is an abbreviation for Software As A Service. It is a way of delivering applications over the Internet as a service. As a customer, you do not have to purchase software; you simply access it over the Internet. It is a brilliant product as it relieves you of the hassle of managing the software and hardware. The company providing the web-based software assumes all the risks and controls its accessibility, performance, and security.
Now let us unpack how you can increase conversions as the SaaS provider,
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Funnel testing and optimization
There are three types of funnels,
- Paid sign up – no free trial. The customer visits the page, signs up, pays and activates.
- Free trials – timed product trial. The customer visits the page, trial sign up, activates and then pays to upgrade.
- Freemium – free for life. The customer visits the page, signs up for free, activates and upgrades.
The funnel type you choose is dependent on your application functionality. Carry out the following steps for proper funnel testing and optimization.
- Baseline your macro conversations – What is the percentage drop from the guests who visited your site, to those who signed up, to those who activated and finally upgraded.
- Categorize your optimization options – Your optimization opportunity is the step that has the highest drop. For instance is 10,000 people visited the site, 1,000 signed up, 500 activated and 100 upgraded, the highest drop off is from those who visited the site and those who signed up.
- Research – Gather qualitative data to identify the conversion barriers. Carry out surveys and usability test to understand why there is a high drop off.
- Develop and implement A/B tests – Once you have understood where the challenges are, improve your funnel of choice. You can combine, change or remove the order of steps. After the modification, implement by testing your new designs from the headlines, buttons, images and other variations.
- Measure the result against your baseline – After the tests, measure against your baseline and see if there is a change. Review and repeat accordingly.
Your aim in this step is to uncover the funnel that gives you the highest conversions.
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Segment your customers
Define your customer segments. For example, you can split the homepage into different sections for testing. There are three main types of customer segments to test,
- Company size segmentation- You can divide your clients by the business size, this also captures people who want to use the applications for personal use. Segment using the number of employees in that company which then determines the pricing.
- Account type segmentation- A typical example is a professional account for individual use and enterprise for organizations. The professional account gives them an opportunity to sample the application free before signing up.
- Customized segmentation- You ask the visitor a few questions to determine their needs before directing them to the application site.
By understanding your core customer, you will design the applications to meet their specific needs as well as focus on the highest return on investment.
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Test Your Calls to Action
A SaaS application is not complete without a call to action. The last step towards increasing your conversions is to test your call to action. Go back to your funnel test and use the result to survey, analyze and create appropriate tests.
The best approach is to customize your call to action as opposed to copying what everyone is doing online. The call to action should be short and enticing so that the visitor clicks the button. For example, instead of “See plans and pricing,” use “Try us today” or “Free download.”
Try different calls to action and stick to the one that gives you the highest conversions.
In summary, these three tips, funnel testing, and optimization, segmenting your customers and testing your calls to action will increase your conversions.
The rule of the game is test, test and test some more.
