By Piyush Jain

In the last 15 years, cloud services have become very efficient and affordable, also internet speed has become much faster. This has led to creation of several SaaS (software as a service) startups, many of them have become huge. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model hosted in the cloud, allowing users to access a product via the Internet. According to Valuates Reports, The Enterprise SaaS Market is expected to grow by 17% in 2020, and the revenue will reach US$ 94.2 billion in 2020 from US$ 77.8 billion in 2019. It requires a lot of hard work and determination In creating a successful SaaS startup model. Entrepreneurs have to consider several factors like technology, marketing, adoption, team, and execute all of them right. Time Doctor is a perfect example of a successful SaaS startup because they are now a seven figure SaaS Company and can generate over 20,000 Trials per Month.

Here are a few steps for entrepreneurs to create a successful SaaS startup:

Wear multiple hats

At the initial stages, the entrepreneurs have managed every task of the organization, from reviewing a press release, preparing for webinars, updating their lead-scoring rules, giving their product demo, and interviewing candidates for jobs. Startup founders should be involved in multiple areas until they find someone else to do the job. Every entrepreneur should focus on top core things, such as building their product, creating awareness of their products, managing leads, and building sales support. The entrepreneurs should start listening, reading, and involving them in relevant conversations around the topics about their product. They will get innovative ideas to build and improve their products.

Focus on customer’s onboarding

A simple SaaS product does not make any difference in the industry. Entrepreneurs should focus on acquiring new customers with your product, but forget to create a path for customer’s onboarding. Your user needs to understand the features and functions of your product and how your product will be beneficial for them. For onboarding new users, you can :

• Allow them to sign up and sign in,
• Provide them with a quick and detailed product tour,
• Display a welcome screen.
• Send them product details and updates through emails.
• Ask for their feedback.

Offer free trial

An entrepreneur launches a SaaS product and charges a specific amount from its customers. The paying customers are the best way to validate your SaaS product. For SaaS startups, it is not a good idea. SaaS startups must provide a free trial of their products to make their customers familiar with features and functions. Trails allow your customers to use your SaaS product and make a decision about whether it is fulfilling their requirements. In the free trial, make sure that you do not provide access to the premium features of your product. The unpaid customers should not be able to access your SaaS product when their free trial is over. When a customer signs in for a free trial, ask for minimal information to use your product. Several startups make the mistake that they collect billing details when customers are willing for a free trial. Let them decide and do not ask until they have finished with the free trial. Through free trial, you can grab the potential customers for your product.

Ensuring prompt and accurate customer assistance

Newly developed SaaS products may have bugs that make it complicated for the customers to use. You will not have time to resolve the issues of every user. Here customer support will assist the users when they face issues in operating your SaaS product, or have questions about plans, features, upgrades, and more. You can create a FAQ section on your website for the common problems of the users. Many SaaS startups fail in providing efficient customer support, as they take the “reactive” approach to support, meaning they wait to engage with customers until they reach out and ask for help. It is important to begin support efforts with activation to simplify the use of the product for new users. For example, Mail chimp begins by sending a brief welcome email to new users with a link to the tutorial on using their drag-and-drop and other features. Another great example of effective customer support is Buffer; it offers clear in-app support with answers to common questions and issues. SaaS startups need to focus on improving their customer support to stay ahead of the curve. Through proper customer support, entrepreneurs can convert a prospective user into a paying customer. Further, it ensures entrepreneurs that their paying customers are satisfied with their product and will continue to use it.

Read More – Virtual Customer Innovation: Staying close to your client, remotely

Create a mailing list

Entrepreneurs need a highly personalized way to connect with their customers that fits within the budget. They have to achieve more results with fewer efforts. Email marketing is the most personal way to reach your target audience, allowing you to customize every message. There is a high possibility that email in your list knows about your product because we all check our inbox at least 3-4 times every day. Several entrepreneurs consider email marketing as an ineffective method and a waste of time, but they’re highly mistaken. In the beginning, email marketing can bring better conversion rates for startups. With time, you can scrub your email list by adding more contacts and removing the inactive ones. Emails are the most effective channel available to modern entrepreneurs. Through emails, startups can offer coupons of their customers to attract to their products. Email marketing platforms like Send Grid allow you to manage email addresses list, design professional-looking emails by customizing readymade templates and send personalized emails to your mailing list.

Timely consider user’s feedback

When the users start using your product, they will share their valuable information on its features and functionality, their expectations. Consider every feedback, whether they are positive or negative. Their positive feedback will motivate you and help you to improve your SaaS product. Their negative might disappoint you, but you should analyze your SaaS product. Data reveals what functionalities are popular, that you have to include in your SaaS product. After every improvisation, you need to carry out tests and monitor customers’ feedback after making changes.

Conclusion

Launching a SaaS startup can be easy, but making it successful is a challenging task. An entrepreneur has to face many barriers and has to overcome them. They have to wear multiple hats because startups have to manage with limited resources available to them. To make their startup successful, entrepreneurs have to focus on customer’s onboarding. To attract potential customers, they can offer them a free trial of their SaaS product. When your product has paying customers, you also have to ensure prompt and accurate customer assistance to retain the existing customers. It is equally important to be aware of ever-changing trends in the market to understand the actual need for services.

Author Bio-

Piyush Jain is the founder and CEO of Simpalm, a software development company in Washington DC. Piyush founded Simpalm in 2009 and has grown it to be a leading mobile and web Development Company in the DMV area. With a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and a strong background in technology and entrepreneurship, he understands how to solve problems using technology. Under his leadership, Simpalm has delivered 300+ mobile apps and web solutions to clients in startups, enterprises and the federal sector.