This week’s roundup includes conducting a SaaS Funnel Audit, insight from two sources on how to convert your free trial leads to paying customers, top SaaS marketing tools, and the SaaS pitfalls customers are warned to avoid.
How to Conduct a SaaS Funnel Audit
ConversionXL
One of the biggest mistake you can make in a SaaS business is assuming the sales funnel is intact. Website and social media traffic are only only the tip of the iceberg in trying to affect your bottom line. Knowing your funnel is not just capturing leads, but staying full, no escapees, is crucial. Auditing your sales funnel can be a major obstacle or mystery, especially if your new in SaaS.
“If you want your SaaS to thrive, to constantly convert leads into happy customers, and have those customers stay with you – you need a sturdy funnel in place. A flowing sales funnel is crucial in any business, but even more so with SaaS businesses… Unlike other business models, revenue is generated over an extended period of time. And when you consider that acquiring each customer has a cost, you can appreciate the importance of an airtight sales funnel that consistently converts.”
This article helps you determine the current health of your funnel, identify the metrics that matter, and how to make the most of those metrics. [Read more here.]
The 10 Must-Have SaaS Marketing Tools & Platforms
Impact
Whether the term “SaaS” seems techie or not, the reality is we are all using SaaS products today, particularly in our work life. It is very possible there are some very robust SaaS tools out there, though, that you are not using that could help you perform your job and better your business. This article lists 10 highly reviewed tools to consider checking out for your own purposes. [Read more here.]
The SaaS Free Trial Is Essential to the Success of Our Startup. Here’s What We’re Doing to Improve It
Hubstaff
Hubstaff Marketing Director, Andy Baldacci, says the number one job of an early-stage SaaS business’s marketing team is to get more customers. While getting current customers to pay more and getting them to stay longer is also a goal, they are not as crucial to survival. This is why a key aspect to many SaaS products is a free trial, with the goal being to introduce the product to leads and show them it is worth paying for. This makes the trial itself extremely important. If leads do not convert after trying your product, money and opportunity are lost.
“In this post, I walk through the process we’re using to improve our SaaS free trial and increase our conversion rates. The journey hasn’t been perfect, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes, but if you haven’t put much thought into your free trial, you should be able to learn a thing or two about what to do (and what not to do).” [Read more here.]
How To Convert SaaS Trial Users Into Paying Customers
Inc42
On the same note as the previous article, this article dives into how to make a SaaS free trial work for your business so the end result is paying a customer. The author shares hints and tips on the benefits of free trials and how to leverage the trial for real results. [Read more here.]
[Slideshow] 9 SaaS Pitfalls To Avoid: Are you guilty?
InformationWeek
For the business who is beginning to migrate to SaaS products, this slideshow covers nine aspects to consider during transition and how to avoid the potential problems or red flags with SaaS. If you are a business moving this direction, these are definitely points to consider; however, if you are in the business of SaaS, knowing these aspects are labeled as red flags to users is important. Are you doing things that will scare off potential customers? Find out. [Read more here.]
Video of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
I respect skills a ton but man I hire “skills” all the time and they all report to “Passion”. @garyvee pic.twitter.com/gHQlS2x5zA
— Jed Record (@JedRecord) September 18, 2016