There has never been a better time to run a SaaS company than in 2022. The SaaS industry has increased in size by around 500% over the past seven years and it keeps evolving and maturing.
Not too long ago, SaaS products were considered a luxury, but now they’re used by individuals and businesses all over the world. And since the industry is so popular, it’s also very competitive.
Business owners who are in the SaaS industry need to know how to stay on top with the right SaaS customer acquisition strategy. If customer acquisition isn’t one of your strengths, you’ve come to the right place.
What is a customer acquisition strategy?
As the name suggests, customer acquisition is the process of acquiring new customers and it’s one of the main goals of any SaaS company’s marketing efforts.
A customer acquisition strategy is a plan of action created to draw new customers and potential users to your business. For the strategy to be a success, you need to have a good approach to customer acquisition.
Keep these elements in mind:
- Operations. Think about what success looks like to you and how you want to achieve it. Determine how big of a budget you want to allocate for this and who in your team will have which responsibilities.
- Tactics. Decide on the tactics you’d like to use and the overall marketing strategy you plan on implementing. Additionally, try to predict how your prospects will move through the buyer’s journey.
- Metrics. Finally, you need to figure out the target win rate you’re looking to achieve as well as the amount of money you’re prepared to invest for your customer acquisition cost.
3 crucial aspects of customer acquisition
It’s more than obvious that an effective customer acquisition strategy is necessary if you’re looking to achieve growth and get high conversion rates. If you want to create the perfect strategy, you need to be aware of the three crucial aspects of the customer acquisition process.
They include the customer acquisition rate, cost, and speed. It’s important to keep an eye on all three of these aspects during your SaaS customer acquisition process to see how effective your efforts are.
But you also need to be very careful about how you approach these aspects. Let’s say for example that you have a low customer acquisition cost and a high customer acquisition rate, but also a high churn rate. This means you’re not getting high-quality customers and basically throwing your money away.
The way you attract potential users to your business and turn them into customers is more important than some people realize. The right strategy on the wrong target customers might lead to seemingly good metrics, but when you dig a little deeper, you will realize your efforts have been wasted.
SaaS customer acquisition challenges
Customer acquisition is something businesses of all sizes and niches work on, but it’s important to note that customer acquisition for SaaS businesses is much different. Before you start implementing different strategies and techniques, there are some challenges you need to be aware of.
The first challenge is that the SaaS market is incredibly saturated. As much as 99% of companies on the market use at least one SaaS solution to run their businesses, and even for that one solution, they can choose between seemingly countless service providers.
Some other things SaaS companies deal with when acquiring new customers include:
- High cost of services. Most of the time, SaaS solutions aren’t on the cheap side. Consumers often struggle with making the decision to commit to a SaaS product, especially if it’s subscription-based.
- Overwhelming complexity. SaaS solutions typically come with a variety of features. They can sometimes seem overwhelmingly complex to users who don’t know what all of those features are, even if they’re the target audience.
- Privacy concerns. Finally, since SaaS solutions are cloud-based, a lot of new customers are hesitant to try them out since they aren’t sure how secure their data will be.
6 techniques to include in your SaaS customer acquisition strategy
Obviously, a solid customer acquisition strategy is extremely important. Here are some of the tips you can include in your strategy to grow your SaaS business.
Start with a well-designed website
First thing’s first, you need to realize that your website is your storefront. It’s what will influence the first impression your prospective customers and potential users have. It’s a big deciding factor on whether a prospect will convert into a customer.
If the design of your website isn’t appealing, a lot of potential customers will simply leave your site.
These are some of the important features your design needs to include:
- High-quality images that are relevant to your solution and business
- Clear and concise CTAs that encourage the website visitors to take action
- A pleasing color scheme
- Proof of your website’s security (e.g. SSL certificate)
- Contact information and links to your social networks
Know your target market and target audience
Even if your solution appeals to different markets and can be useful in various situations, you still need to have a clearly defined target market and audience. This will help you create a customer acquisition strategy that is tailored toward the people who are most likely to purchase your product.
To find out who your target market or target group is and create an ideal customer profile, you need to take a close look at your service and its value proposition. Think about all the features it offers and what kind of company or individual would benefit most from them.
You can also identify your target market by taking a look at the customers you already have and seeing what your current and previous customers have in common.
Make sure your customers are a priority
If you want to be an industry leader and run a successful company, you need to realize one thing, which is that you exist because of your customers. Your main purpose is to create a product that will satisfy the needs and address the pain points of your potential users.
But still, that’s not enough to find success. For a SaaS business to succeed in this competitive industry, it needs to be customer-centric, offer amazing customer service, and put its users first.
This is why you need to create an amazing user experience for everyone who comes to your website and ensure everyone leaves as a happy customer.
Review and optimize your pricing page
Unless you have a unique product your customers can’t find anywhere else, you should have competitive pricing. You need to have a pricing strategy that appeals to your customers but is still profitable for you.
A pricing page is one of the most important elements of any SaaS website because it shows potential users exactly what they can expect. On your pricing page, display all of the information about the product your prospective customers will pay for.
The pricing page itself needs to have an eye-catching and attractive layout, customer success stories, and most importantly, all of the pricing options.
SaaS businesses usually offer multiple pricing tiers and present them in a pricing table. Your pricing table will significantly influence the buying decisions of your potential users.
It should include:
- All of the pricing plans and options your business offers.
- All of the additional features those pricing plans include.
- Information relevant to trial users if you’re using a freemium business model.
- Benefits for each of the pricing plans.
- A highlight of the most popular SaaS plan.
- Discounts that come with annual plans or only for a limited period of time.
- An explanation of the signup process.
Keep a close eye on your metrics
Your customer acquisition strategy won’t be perfect on the first try. You will have to go through a lot of trial and error before you get it right and you’re satisfied with your conversion rates.
The best way to know what elements of your strategy you need to change and improve is to keep an eye on important metrics on a regular basis.
The three most important metrics are:
- Customer acquisition cost. This metric shows how much money you spend to acquire a new customer. It includes marketing costs but also the costs related to sales and even the software tools you use. If you notice that your customer acquisition costs are rising, it’s time to make some changes.
- Customer lifetime value. How much value you get from a customer while they’re doing business with you is known as the customer lifetime value. If your CLV is low, it might be because you don’t have competitive pricing, your onboarding process is bad, or you’re marketing to the wrong target group.
- Churn. The percentage rate at which your customers cancel their subscriptions is known as churn. If your customers churn just a few months after subscribing to your services, it’s time to rethink your customer acquisition strategy and find strategies that will make sure your subscribers stick around.
Invest in content marketing
Companies with a SaaS business model spend $342,000 to $1,080,000 per year (or more) on content marketing, and there is a good reason for that. Therefore, a good content marketing team can be a great asset.
An efficient content marketing strategy is a common customer acquisition technique for multiple reasons. It can bring in high ROI, improve your SEO which will make your website easier to find on search engines, and allow you to prove yourself as an expert in your industry.
It can also help you showcase all of the features and benefits of your services to your prospects, helping them take the plunge and convert into customers.
If you’re going to create a content strategy, you need to do it right. Publish well-written and thoroughly researched blog articles, case studies, webinars, e-books, and videos that will be filled with information each potential customer will find relevant and helpful throughout the entire sales funnel.
Don’t think publishing one blog post a week when you have spare time counts as a content strategy because it doesn’t. And most importantly of all, make sure you only post original content.
Summary
SaaS customer acquisition isn’t easy, especially in the early stages when you’re looking for the perfect acquisition channel. Finding new customers can sometimes feel like an uphill battle and getting them to sign up for your services and stick around for months or even years is a true challenge.
However, it’s far from impossible. Just remember that each SaaS business is unique, has a different target audience, and has a specific product. Luckily, the techniques we listed here will certainly be of great help on your mission to get more customers and reel in potential users.
