When launching a startup, eager entrepreneurs will often hear that inner voice that tells them “Do it!” on every idea that comes to mind. The initial euphoria that comes with every new beginning can be a great drive to work really hard on making a new business flourish. But, if untamed, that excitement can also be a curse.
If you care about making the right choices as an entrepreneur, you need to know when to greenlight strategies that would help your SaaS startup grow and when to hit the brakes on those that would delay its success or, in a worst-case scenario, make it fail.
With that in mind, we’re listing the top eight dos and don’ts every founder should learn for the sake of their SaaS startup’s future.
1. Do Use the Power of Tools That Already Exist
There’s no success without clear planning and organization. You don’t want to scribble notes or make complex spreadsheets for various operations if there is a simpler, more streamlined way.
Instead, use dedicated tools such as Friday, Basecamp, or Jira to plan and map out your projects and keep your entire team organized and 100% engaged.
To measure the performance of your marketing efforts and sales, use web analytics tools. Remember that all social media apps have integrated analytics dashboards that provide great insight into your campaigns’ performance and keep track of your posts’ engagement.
2. Do Use Links to Build Authority in Your Niche
Cultivating online relationships is what gives a brand the power to reach a greater base of customers. SEO is a complex matter to tackle, but modern businesses, and especially SaaS startups, must make constant efforts in that department if they want any visibility.
So, make building quality backlinks for your website a priority within your marketing strategy. Having established experts in your niche to vouch for your brand and services (and link to you!) is how you instill trust in high-value clients. That’s how you build authority and get to rank higher on search engines.
3. Do Get Familiar With Your Customers
As your business grows, it’s wise to refine and evolve your products and services to make them more useful and attractive. But, remember that customers evolve too!
We’re sure you’ve studied your target group before launch and learned what they want so you can cater to their needs, but you need to keep consistent and work on these insights regularly.
A good strategy here is to always engage your customers with online surveys or outreach directly to those you value the most. Studying your analytics tools can also provide key data on how your customers’ buying patterns shift.
4. Do Make Your Offer Straightforward and Accessible
Sure, your product might be complex or simply feature a multitude of functionalities. But to those that are interested in finding simple solutions, complex offers tend to have the opposite effect on their curiosity.
So, explain how your services work in a plain and simple manner. Introduce clean infographics and short, quality content that demonstrates why your product works.
Use this as a rule of thumb: if people outside your niche can easily understand what your solution is all about and learn its value, it means you’re doing it right.
5. Don’t Focus Solely on Your Competition
Learning what your successful competitors do to get where they are should definitely be on your to-do list for building a strong SaaS startup. However, you shouldn’t dwell on all of their tactics without working to figure out an original approach.
Following the exact path your competition took to hit the jackpot will only leave your startup in their shadows. Instead, learn your competitors’ shortcomings and weaknesses and ensure you aim in that direction.
For instance, if they don’t use social media tools properly, use those platforms to get ahead. You can also focus on targeting the keywords that they don’t use to capture a portion of the customers that are being left out.
6. Don’t Leave the Web with Your Marketing Efforts
Wasting precious resources on offline marketing is a terrible strategy for a SaaS startup. Your applications and services are online – and so are your prospects, seeking online solutions to their problems. So why would you even think about offline promotions?
You can always make offline efforts to demonstrate your credibility and put the word about your startup out there, but the online marketing alternatives are far cheaper and deliver way more positive ROI.
7. Don’t Be Greedy with Your Pricing
You need to be perfectly honest about the solutions that you’ve created and are now trying to market. Chances are, your tools have a good share of shortcomings and bugs that need sorting out, especially when your SaaS business is still in its cradle.
You’d want to please your customers as much as possible, so you need to keep your prices reasonable until your brand and products are perfected and ready to ask for big dollars.
Also, don’t perform marketing suicide and offer your services without a free trial. When you’re only new to the game, you can’t expect to gain traction if you’re not willing to let prospects try out your solutions.
8. Don’t Invent Tools That Are Already Out There
Today’s SaaS market is pretty much oversaturated with all kinds of web applications. While that doesn’t mean that your idea is invalid, it won’t see much light if it doesn’t bring something new to the table.
For example, when people need payment solutions for their ecommerce stores, they already have Stripe and Square. There’s no need for more of the same in the myriad of tools in that market.
Even then, you don’t have to invent solutions that no one ever thought of before – you can still keep innovating and refining. Whether it’s a new approach to pricing or another way of achieving substantial team productivity, you can still redesign staple applications and present a new, different way of giving customers an incentive to do business with you.
Final Thoughts
The challenges that we’ve talked about above are almost inevitable in the first few years of managing your SaaS startup.
Following the simple rules and implementing the tips that tackle each of these challenges will not only secure a lifeline for your business but build a foundation for a successful company for decades to come.
