Tips for Developing Software as a Service (SaaS)

Developing a SaaS application involves hundreds of hours of coding to get it functioning just right. But you could be neglecting some important areas that might make a bigger difference than just the quality of your code. From marketing to customer onboarding, here are a few tips on how to make sure your software as a service development ultimately reaches and satisfies its target customers.

Your Code Doesn't Need to be Perfect

Try to get the product out the door even if it still has warts. Software almost always ends up taking longer than what you had planned. The minimum viable product methodology emphasizes getting your SaaS offering in front of potential customers even if it's not 100% polished. A popular mantra for SaaS startups is "if you're not ashamed of it, then you're launching too late".

Get Customers for Your SaaS

• Try to get some press for your startup right off the bat. It can help to craft a one-page summary of each of your key features for emphasis either in your press releases or through your social media posts.
• Split test your sign-up form and optimize for conversions. You will want to test different colors, layouts, button text as well as the length of the page.
• Offer a free trial or some other low cost method for users to get familiar with your product before committing to the full subscription price.

Reduce Churn Among Your Subscribers

Customer churn, when subscribers of your SaaS drop out before the rebill, is the bane of SaaS developers. A higher than expected churn rate can impact your profit as well as also pointing to some possible problems with your SaaS offering. Focusing on improving customer service (including onboarding new customers onto your app) can help plug that leak. You may also want to remove the customer's ability to self-serve cancel their account. By making them contact customer support to cancel their account, you'll also have a chance to give them an exit interview on what went wrong and hopefully gain a few tips to improve your app.

Get in touch with us today if you'd like help developing your SaaS or need a technical consultation about your software development needs.