Recurring revenue is the key to growing and sustaining a successful business. For SaaS companies, high churn rates can kill your revenue since subscriptions are the nature of the market. As your company grows, SaaS churn can become an even bigger problem, making it vital that you start as soon as possible developing a strategy to reduce churn rates. Below, we’ll give you some of the best SaaS marketing tactics to help you reduce churn.
SaaS Marketing Tactic #1 – Improve Communication With Your Customers.
If you want to reduce SaaS churn rates and improve customer retention, you’ve got to communicate more with your customers. Clear, timely, and relevant communication goes a long way toward helping your customers get more out of your service and improving overall customer satisfaction. The more often you communicate with customers, the more opportunities you have to build trust and foster customer relationships.
One of the best ways to communicate with and engage your SaaS customers is through email marketing. As a communication platform, email is not only affordable and effective, but it also allows you to send real-time messages to different segments of your customer base in a matter of moments.
Here are just a few scenarios where email marketing can help open a clear line of communication for your customers:
- During onboarding, your business can use email to make sure that customers are getting the information they need to get set up and start using your service.
- When you make a change or update to your service, your company can email customers letting them know how the change or update might affect them.
- Throughout the year, you can send targeted messages to different customer segments to help them better use your SaaS product.
In addition to email, chat platforms can also be used to improve communication with customers. Adding a chat application to your website makes it easier for customers to get assistance in their moment of need. When customers have access to your staff instantly through chat, they will be less likely to throw in the towel when they encounter a problem.
SaaS Marketing Tactic #2 – Get Feedback From Your Customers. (And Use It!)
Gathering customer feedback is another great SaaS marketing tool that you can use to reduce churn rates. If you want to keep your customers happy, you need to understand how they use your software and what challenges they face when using it. The best way to do this is to ask your customers directly.
It’s not enough to just collect feedback from your customers. Once you gather the data, you will then need to use your insights to identify opportunities for improvement. Take time to look for patterns in complaints or concerns to identify your most significant challenges. Then, brainstorm ways that you can make actionable changes to improve the customer experience.
SaaS Marketing Tactic #3 – Use Trigger-Based Emails to Re-engage Dormant Customers.
No matter how great your SaaS product is, for one reason or another some of your customers may stop using your software. Maybe they lost interest, or maybe they ran into a problem that interfered with their ability to use your service. Either way, it’s essential that you work to re-engage customers who have gone dormant before they decide to leave.
One of the best SaaS marketing tips for re-engaging dormant customers is through trigger-based emails. These are targeted emails that are sent to customers automatically after a specified period of inactivity. By reaching out to customers when they stop using your software, you can work to get ahead of any challenges or questions they may have before they cancel your service altogether.
For example, let’s say that you notice a pattern of customers canceling their subscriptions after two weeks of inactivity. You may want to create an automated email and send it to customers after they have gone dormant for one week. In this email, be sure to make it clear how the customer can reach your staff if they need assistance using your products. You may even want to provide them with some content that contains helpful tips or FAQs that will enable them to get past common hurdles that customers face when using your SaaS product.
SaaS Marketing Tactic #4 – Create Content That Helps Customers Get More Value From Your SaaS Product.
If you want to reduce churn and improve customer retention, you’ve got to find ways to help your customers get the most value out of your service. One of the most effective ways to do this is by creating compelling content that helps customers address their most significant challenges and get the most out of your product.
For example, you might create a blog post that offers tips on how to use a new feature or distribute an e-book that goes more in-depth into how customers can optimize their dashboard. The more relevant and helpful information you can provide for customers through compelling content, the more likely they will be to continue to use and find value in your software.
The best place to start when considering which topics to address in your content is the most frequently asked questions. Work with your support team to find out what types of questions new customers often ask and what they need help with most. Then, develop blogs, e-books, infographics, videos, and other types of content that provide information to address these questions, concerns, and challenges.
You can then distribute this content through email and social media. As you add new features or make updates to your software, make sure that you create new content that you can send to current users so that they can continue to get the most value from your SaaS product. You should also include a resource library on your website that provides easy access to these materials for new customers or even those who are considering your products.
SaaS Marketing Tactic #5 – Remove Self-serve Account Cancellation.
Many SaaS companies give their customers the ability to cancel their subscription right from their customer portal. Though customers may like the convenience of canceling their service in this way, it can be a source of unnecessary SaaS churn. When you allow customers to cancel their subscription on their own, you are not able to get any feedback about their cancellation or the opportunity to make it right.
On the other hand, if you require customers to speak with a customer support representative before they cancel, you have the opportunity to ask why they are leaving. This can be valuable for two reasons. For one, it allows you to get valuable feedback on your customer’s most significant challenges and gain further insight into why customers decide to leave. But more importantly, it can present the opportunity to make things right and retain the customer.
Consider this – many SaaS users might be inclined to cancel their subscription if the software doesn’t do what they need it to. But what if they just aren’t aware of a feature? Or perhaps they are having issues using the SaaS product. These are issues that can easily be solved by putting the customer in touch with a customer support representative.
Though getting rid of the convenience of self-serve account cancellation may put a little more work on your customers, it’s still worth it in the end. It gives your team the opportunity to learn more about why customers leave and what it might take to get them to stay. More importantly, it offers your business a final opportunity to help these customers get what they are looking for, so they don’t feel inclined to leave.
Final Takeaways on SaaS Marketing
Churn is by no means a new problem for SaaS companies. Customers leave for different reasons, but there is often a way that you can help them find more value in your SaaS product so that they don’t feel inclined to cancel their subscription. Using the SaaS marketing tips above, you can start working on improving the customer experience and boosting customer retention rates over time.
Need help reducing your SaaS churn rates? It may be time to call in the SaaS marketing experts at SevenAtoms. Our team knows what it takes to help you improve customer retention to reduce churn rates over time.
