If there is one thing that SaaS businesses are in need of, it is more leads and customers that continue to purchase from them. However, due to stiff competition in every vertical and the availability of lots of options for buyers, it can be tough to do so.
Nurturing leads and customers in the SaaS business have a lot of benefits. Lower acquisition costs, improved conversion rates, and higher recurring revenue to name a few. Therefore, it is mandatory for every SaaS business to invest in and focus on nurturing leads and customers. But, it is easier said than done.
In this FormKeep article, we have highlighted four data-driven points that will help your lead and customer nurturing process.
Let’s get straight into it.
Initiate and maintain contact with your leads
Your leads and potential customers are living in the information age. That means a lot of information is being bombarded onto them, including your competitors’ messages. Fortunately, you have their attention, which is why they are your lead.
According to a survey conducted by Verse, 41% of surveyed marketers admitted that following up with leads quickly is the biggest challenge in the lead conversion process. Furthermore, 39% accepted that making initial contact and 35% admitted that maintaining contact with leads are the biggest challenges.
The aim of sending them well-curated messages via various channels is to stay on your leads’ minds. As a result, you will be the first business they will think of when they are finally ready to purchase. If you lose their attention once, you will lose them forever. Either they will go back to being a prospect, or worse, they will opt for your competitor’s product.
How can you do it? Capture relevant data that helps you understand where in the funnel your leads are. This will help you craft the right message that will push them to the next stage. There are a lot of CRM tools that can be easily integrated with your product and website.
Solve customer queries
Have you ever reached out to a business with a query and they have taken days to reply or not reply at all? Annoying, isn’t it? On top of it, you will never purchase from them even if their product was actually good. It is highly likely that you will choose a product of a company that resolves your queries, even though it is relatively expensive and contains fewer features.
According to research conducted by Esteban Kolsky, CEO of thinkJar, 55% of customers are willing to pay more for a guaranteed positive experience. It should also be noted that 84% of customers are frustrated when the agent doesn’t have the right information.
Unsurprisingly, looking for assistance and not getting it especially when the aim is customer satisfaction is annoying, to say the least. On top of that, you as a business should guide your customer every step of the way and remove roadblocks as they use your product to get value. Ideally, sharing all relevant details to the customer before they explore the product gives better results, from the perspective of customer experience.
What can you do to solve your customer queries quickly? In this age of self-service, documentation of your product, processes, and the internal knowledge base is necessary. Maintaining a knowledge base of playbooks, tutorials, and guides will not only help your customers but also help your team find things quickly when resolving a query.
Invest in customer experience
In the previous section, we touched upon how important customer satisfaction is in regard to the longevity of a business. A happy customer is a loyal customer. Happy customers will keep buying from you and will bring you new customers by referral. Nurturing your customers is crucial for increasing lifetime value.
According to a research conducted by PWC, 73% of all people point to customer experience when it comes to their purchasing decisions. On the flip side, 32% of customers walk away from a brand they loved after one bad experience.
The numbers drive home the fact that customer experience is central to the success of a SaaS business. Continually improving all aspects of your business, including the website, buying experience, and the product itself while prioritizing the needs of your customers is key. Of course, setting a process for the same is mandatory.
How to improve your customer experience? Mapping customers’ journeys through the funnels and personalizing wherever possible is a good place to start. That is dependent on what data you gather and how you plan to use it. Finally, empowering your employees to make decisions central to customer success is paramount.
Get feedback from leads and customers
The easiest way to improve user experience is to ask the user what they want and deliver them just that. Questions like, “what is the problem you would want to solve”, “how do you want your solution to be presented” will help you underscore your customer’s expectations. Quality customer feedback will help you steer the product in a good direction.
In fact, 70% of businesses that deliver a world-class experience take assistance from customer feedback. It is also important to understand that indifference from your customers is an indicator of disinterest. 1 out of 26 customers who had a terrible experience report, while the rest simply churn.
Depending on the stage of your business craft questions that will further the customer-centric growth of your organization. Then remove the questions whose answers you already have or can infer from the amount of data you already collect. Send the rest of the questions through different channels. Make sure the questions are direct and can be answered quickly.
Wrapping up
Keeping up with the trends of your industry and paying close attention to customer behavior are the starting points of building a better nurturing pipeline that will turn your customers into raving fans. We hope that this concise data-driven guide will guide you in the right direction to nurture leads and customers for your SaaS business.
About the Guest Blog Author: Lucy Manole is a creative content writer and strategist at Marketing Digest. She specializes in writing about digital marketing, technology, entrepreneurship and education. When she is not writing or editing, she spends time reading books, cooking and traveling.