The software-as-a-service (SaaS) market is on the rise. The global industry is approximately $106 billion, and more and more software companies are selling their apps online.
Because there is a low barrier to entry, the competition among providers is fierce. Unlike other industries, SaaS is mostly driven by recurring revenues.
Therefore, some SaaS businesses should take a different approach on how to deliver content. A few early missteps can happen in your part and can affect your business if you’re not too careful.
Here are the ten fatal pricing mistakes that you need to avoid:
Pricing errors
Pricing is the biggest mistake that you can commit. It’s a given though- SaaS pricing isn’t always that easy.
Here are various pricing errors that you need to avoid:
- Hiding your prices. Not displaying a pricing page on your site is a fatal mistake.
- Having a single price. Giving your customers a single pricing option can be problematic for people who couldn’t afford your service’s features.
- Too many metrics. Giving your customers too many pricing options makes the buying process even more complicated, overwhelming your customers as a result. Although there is no optimal number, try to limit your services to three.
- Utilizing the wrong value metric. Some companies use a “per user” pricing wherein users have to pay depending on the number of people who will use it. This can be discouraging, especially for prospects who’ll be paying for let’s say- 100 accounts, and yet only wants to avail of your software’s most basic features.
- Pricing based on your competitors. While others will base their pricing on their competitors’ rates, you should base your pricing depending on the value that you’re giving to your customers, and not by how it measures up to the competition.
Weak or lacking calls-to-action
To make the most out of your website, you need to have a call-to-action button. No matter how engaging or compelling your posts are, if you don’t provide them with an opportunity to learn about your service, then you’ll lose out on a lot of conversions.
According to Voy Media, a reputable Saas Marketing Agency, “Instead of letting users look for contact details, place a relevant CTA in the middle or at the end of your blog post. On the web page of your website, make sure that your contact details, your phone number, and email address- are visible.”
Neglecting user experience
Nothing is more valuable than providing your site visitors a user-friendly experience. Without giving them a clear purchasing path, for instance, most of them will be lost.
Most users would also want to reach out to you if ever they have questions, so you need to show them that there are a lot of customer support tools at their disposal.
Not utilizing tracking pixels
How do you catch prospective customers who got away? People who visited your site once or twice, only to never come back?
That’s where your remarketing strategy comes in, and where those crucial conversion pixels start to pay off. It’s time to step up your SaaS game, using these tools to turn people who are “just browsing” to paying, loyal customers in your website.
Poor customer service
If a lot of people are leaving, then you can bet that they aren’t telling their friends positive things about your product/software.
At the end of the day, you need to keep people happy by resolving issues before they blow up into major problems. Doing so increases your growth when done right.
Not mentioning your value proposition
Another mistake a lot of SaaS companies make is undervaluing the service that they offer.
A lot of SaaS sellers, for instance, with the effort to overtake their competition, lower their prices to make it more appealing to customers. But pricing your products cheaply should never be your unique selling point.
Not having a website for reference
It’s quite impossible to sell your SaaS model without a website that will act as a reference point for your leads.
Therefore, you have no excuse not to create the best one because part of the overall experience when creating a software is knowing what a website with an excellent user experience looks like.
No marketing strategy
Most SaaS companies start their engagements with a marketing strategy and continuously update that strategy.
If you don’t have a plan in place and just make things up as you go along, then you’re not setting up your business to succeed. If you don’t have a roadmap, then how are you going to find your way to success?
Buying your leads
While it may be convenient, don’t buy your leads. Think about it. What if emails will no longer be used? What if those people who owned those emails switched companies, or in an entirely different position now? What if the leads you bought are also marketed to another SaaS company?
That’s why you have to do it the traditional way of finding leads on your own.
Misusing analytics tools
While SaaS marketers know that analytics are crucial, most of them fail to use free tools like Google Analytics and Search Console. If you have more budget, then you can try out paid analytics as well.
Analytics gives you a winning edge over your rivals. This helps you gain insight on who visits your site, and how they interact with it.
Final Thoughts
So, there you go. You might be guilty of committing these mistakes in the past. Your company might be committing these mistakes now. But it’s never too late to turn these mistakes around and leverage your SaaS marketing strategy.
