Webapper consults with many SMBs. We share our knowledge and experience on business topics to help fuel manageable business growth.
Scaling your SaaS solution requires strategic planning, a focus on sustainable revenue growth, investment in infrastructure, iteration of processes, attention to customer satisfaction, and diligent effort with security. While each of these areas are essential in establishing your SaaS foundation, their challenges and impact magnify as you grow.
When launching a new SaaS product, you need a plan to maximize your ability to launch and acquire new customers. Your Go To Market strategy should focus on defining the unique characteristics of your product and demonstrating how it addresses needs of the target market. After working on a number of startups and SaaS launches, we see four cornerstones for a successful go to market strategy for a SaaS product.
As security challenges mount for enterprise customers, we see an emergence of private SaaS solutions. Enterprises and large organizations who need major customizations to the system, stringent security, or definitive control over their environment use private SaaS (dedicated SaaS). Private SaaS differs from multi-tenant SaaS model. Rather than a single instance of software being shared by customers, each customer has their own environment.
AI is permeating everyday life at a rapid clip, especially with the emergence of ChatGPT. But we've only scratched the surface. SaaS applications will see strong growth in AI integrations, including machine learning. The combination of AI/ML in SaaS is powerful, and it will dramatically impact our productivity and capabilities for years to come.
In SaaS, it's apparent that most products are developed for desktop first. Given the nature of our hybrid work environment today, many tech experts predict that mobile apps will become increasingly dominant. SaaS businesses that fail to offer mobile-friendly solutions risk losing customers and falling behind their competitors. We see a significant growth opportunity for mobile-first SaaS products.
Software-as-a-Service is huge. A staggering 99% of companies will use at least one SaaS product by the end of 2023. SaaS niches are dominated by a handful of vendors. For example, in CRM, it's Salesforce, Hubspot, ClickUp and Monday. Competitive markets don't preclude innovation though -- we're seeing the emergence of micro solutions to augment these big players. Witness the rise of microSaaS products.
Today, let's take a moment to dream big (we're overdue for an aspirational article). What if you were actually building a SaaS unicorn? It's possible -- so far, over a thousand startups have reached valuations over $1 billion. If becoming a unicorn was easy, everyone would do it, right? Not everyone can, but if you look at SaaS unicorns, you'll see some repeating themes.
If you're a baseball fan, we're entering the most wonderful time of the year: MLB playoffs and the World Series. In business, we use so many metaphors from baseball, and with the season upon us, we realized how much building SaaS is like playing baseball. Step into the batter's box, and get ready for our pitch.
For the past few years, Webapper has built its business around some key performance indicators. And with minimal disruption, we've silently pivoted and improved our business. We were able to make transformational progress by setting goals and making our entire team aware of the plan. In fact, our team is all involved in setting up our Objectives & Key Results (OKRs). Here's our guide to finding success in SaaS using OKRs.
What happens if you're struggling with the initial capture of qualified leads? It can certainly happen for both new products and mature ones. Building up revenue requires having ample new opportunities to surpass any customers who churn out. So if your sales need a boost, you may want to develop or improve your SaaS sales funnels.
