What is SaaS?
The Software as a Service is a model which can distribute software through the cloud. The user doesn’t have to install and maintain the software. A cloud provider will host applications that will be available for the users. SaaS is a business that is rapidly growing. Saas is a unique business that has a niche customer base.
Challenges in SaaS Business and How to Overcome Them
SaaS business is rapidly growing, but it is not easy for everyone to succeed. This is a business that requires proper marketing. Even giants in the marketing industry have failed to successfully generate optimize the SaaS businesses. If you are a small startup in the SaaS industry, it feels impossible to be successful. In reality, there are some common challenges in the SaaS business. If you learn to overcome those challenges, your success is imminent. The common SaaS business challenges are:
- Increasing Competition
- Focusing on Software
- Maintaining Current Customer Base
- Defining Your Customer
Increasing Competition
SaaS is a rapidly growing industry and an ever-changing one. In fact, according to a study, cloud services are estimated to grow by 21% in the upcoming year. When an industry has huge competition like this, it is difficult to make them stand out. Almost every organization is adopting the cloud service business style.
Further to this heavy competition, many companies would have started their SEO campaign long before the other companies. So, your client might be late to the game and expect results soon. These deadlines will affect effective SEO campaigns.
SaaS SEO is the process of generating organic traffic for the business and getting the SaaS business a better ranking in the Google SERPs. To rank on the first page of Google, an organization should use various SEO strategies. SEO is a necessity for almost any type of business, but it’s more important for SaaS because of the growing competition.
Overcoming the Challenge
Standing out from the competition is essential to being successful. To overcome this challenge, promote your business as a leader in the industry. Generally, customers intend to listen to the commanding voice. You might have great software, but without the right marketing approach, no one is going to know about it. Approaching a SaaS SEO marketing agency will help you to stand out from the competition.
Focusing on Software
Many businesses focus too much on software. The entire industry focuses on the first part of the SaaS. This results in an endless amount of unique software with no marketing. Good software without the right marketing approach will not generate organic traffic. The customer has enormous options to choose from. So, you need to make your product stand out from others to make the customer choose you over the competitors.
Overcoming the Challenge
SaaS is abbreviated as Software as a Service. So, the software is the first half of the entity. It has a second part which is service. The service part of the SaaS is often forgotten by many SaaS companies. Marketing your software is not enough. It is essential to market the service you provide. The competitor may have better software, but you might provide a service that they don’t have. Use it to your advantage to beat the competitor. By following this strategy, you can also beat the heavy competition by getting a better rank on Google SERP.
Maintaining the Current Customer Base
Many businesses focus on getting new customers resulting in forgetting about their current customers. As said, the SaaS industry is an ever-changing one and rapidly growing. An organization can lose its customer in a blink to a competitor. More than getting the best product, the customer wants to be treated well by the organization. When customer feels unwelcome in a business, they will change their preference. Many organizationsdon’t realize maintaining current customers is as important as generating new leads.
Overcoming the Challenge
The customer should feel like they are wanted. It is an organization’s responsibility to make the customer feel welcome. For example, you can make premium offers to existing customers. Provide the best service to the existing customer to create a loyal customer base. When a business holds a loyal customer base, it is easy to pull new customers to the business.
Defining Your Customer
Saas has a niche market. Each customer will have a different need. In a market like this, it is necessary to know who wants your product. Remember, your product is not for everyone. Knowing your customer makes it easier for the marketing team to convert leads into paying customers.
Overcoming the Challenge
Defining your customer before the start of marketing is crucial. First, find the target audience. The marketing team should focus on creating campaigns to attract the targeted audience. SaaS has a vast market. It is difficult to pull the customers from that vast market. That is why defining your customer base is crucial. When you define the customer base, the market is not vast anymore. By doing this, soon you will get better leads that can be converted into customers.
Wrapping Up
Anyone who has been in the SaaS business knows it is not easy to succeed. Those who are new to this business, struggle to overcome these challenges. If you are one of them, don’t give up. Learn more about SaaS and with enough time, you will get a grip on it. Hope this blog post helped people struggling with one of these challenges.
