Building a business takes hard work, focus, and most importantly, time. When starting a Software as a Service business, it is tempting to focus on becoming the next overnight success. But in all honesty, very few companies luck into that title.
For every overnight millionaire, there are several hardworking business owners steadily reaching sustainable success. Be encouraged that with long term focus and steady planning, you can be next.
Determining how quickly a SaaS company should grow is not a one-size fits all equation. There are many metrics and statistics that we could throw at you but knowing those numbers does not increase your growth rates. It is learning and putting into practice the tried and true strategies that successful businesses use that will increase the growth of your SaaS Company.
Of course, every area of your business should be streamlined and perfected in order to produce the best quality service. But there are only two basic ways to grow your business: increase your customer base and increase your revenue growth.
Putting it that simply makes it sound easy, but the factors that affect both customer and revenue growth are vast. At RevTek Capital, our experience and research working with SaaS businesses have found that there are three main areas where a SaaS company should focus their attention. In order to increase your customer base and thus revenue growth, your company should focus on: offering a quality evolving SaaS product, dynamic marketing strategies, and excellent customer service.
Evolving Products or Services
Without a quality product, a SaaS company has no hope. And with SaaS, the basis of that product or service is software that solves a problem for your target audience. Unfortunately, when it comes to the online world, having a good idea and a one-time finished product is not enough. The digital world is constantly evolving and improving, and thus your service must as well if you intend to succeed long term. This is where the use of open-source software comes in.
So, how can open-sourcing help a SaaS company grow? There are many ways. Foremost, open-source business software will make your success easier from the get-go. If you are able to find open source projects or coding that fits your needs, you will save time and money in software development and can focus on the customization of that software to your brand and business.
Secondly, having the use of an open source community will ensure that your software can constantly evolve and keep up with new developments without wasting your precious time and efforts. This includes fixing bugs and adjusting issues while you and your team can focus on your user experience and new product growth and roll-outs.
The key of focus here is to continually provide an updated product without using too much of your own creative energy and time.
Marketing Strategies
Once you are satisfied with the status of the product or service you have to offer, your main focus can shift to building an ever-growing customer base. The best way to do this is by developing a solid marketing strategy. Even as a new business with a small marketing budget, focusing on hiring an experienced content marketer or on learning how to market your company through inexpensive measures such as social media can increase your client base through word of mouth, advertisements, and community connections.
In addition to social media efforts and search engine advertisements, collecting email addresses in order to market directly to an interested audience is a best practice when it comes to online marketing. Using your current client base by sharing testimonials, reviews and instituting a referral program are also great ways to increase your client base without investing too many marketing dollars.
There are many different approaches you can take when it comes to content marketing for SaaS companies, but the key is setting a goal and proven strategies and sticking to them.
Customer Service
The final piece to growing your SaaS company is by focusing on retaining customers in order to decrease your churn and unsubscribe rate. This is mainly done through your customer service efforts. When clients have positive experiences with the personnel of a company and are assured that they will receive an answer or solution to any issues that arise, they are much less likely to leave the company.
Ensuring that your SaaS business has excellent customer service through the use of personable employees, extensive FAQ and troubleshoot directories, an easy to use online interface, and attention to customer satisfaction will help you to build a brand that is known for its quality products and reputation.
The key for your customer service goals is to remember that it is less expensive for you to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones. There is no better place to focus your growth attention and dollars than on maintaining your client relationships.
Capital for Your Growing SaaS Company
At RevTek Capital, it is our main business to partner with you by supplying the capital to help take you to the next level of business. This capital may be used to perfect your product, develop a new marketing strategy, or bolster your customer service efforts.
If you now have a good understanding of how to grow a SaaS company and are ready to take the next step in growing your business, contact our team to begin today.
