I’m going to expose one of the biggest lies B2B SaaS Executives, Entrepreneurs, and Marketers tell themselves and their team about their SaaS conversion rate… and if this hits a nerve, it is probably because you’ve told yourself – or have been told by your team – this very same lie!
“We have a 5% conversion rate from free to paid, but that’s okay because those 95% that don’t convert wouldn’t have been customers anyway.”
or…
“Sure, only 3% of the visitors that hit the sign-up page where we ask for the credit card to start their trial actually sign-up, but that’s okay since the other 97% who didn’t sign-up weren’t potential customers anyway.”
Whatever makes you sleep better at night, but it sounds like you’re trying to justify your poor SaaS conversion rate rather than looking to fix the problem!
Your Sales Process is Driving Down Your SaaS Conversion Rate
Unfortunately, it’s easy to justify poor performing conversion funnels like that because it feels better than saying your promotion, sign-up, engagement / on-boarding, and conversion processes are so bad that as a whole it literally drives away 97% of the POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS that came to your site because they thought what you have might be a solution to their problem.
In fact, stop calling people that sign-up for your SaaS Free Trial ‘trialers’ or ‘trialists’ or ‘free users’ … they are POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS and should be treated as such if you want to improve your SaaS conversion rate.
Now, if they really aren’t potential customers, then this means that all of your PPC ads, PR, SEO, and other marketing spend has been a big waste because you’re attracting the wrong audience… 97 out of every 100 visitors to your site was the result of a failed marketing strategy! Which also means you were lucky that the 3 who converted found your site.
So no one should be able to hide behind the “97% of the people that come to our site wouldn’t be customers anyway” excuse since that’s a failure, too!
But, rather than admit to those things, you just change your perception of reality to make yourself feel better; that they weren’t really ever going to be customers in the first place… and your warped perception is killing – or severely limiting – your SaaS business.
Your Low SaaS Conversion Rate – Stop Blaming your Potential Customers
Here’s the deal… if you are attracting the right audience and 97% of those people aren’t engaging in some meaningful way with your site, it isn’t their fault… it is yours. Before you spend another dollar on AdWords, or give an SEO company another penny… fix your on-site and in-app engagement and conversion process.
If you aren’t attracting the right audience, stop what you’re doing, go back to the drawing board, and be absolutely clear on who you should be going after and make sure your marketing strategy includes reaching and attracting primarily THAT audience.
It’s time to stop making excuses and start making progress!
So… what’s a good conversion rate if 3% or 5% is low? Well, at this point, anything better than what you have right now is “good” so let’s shoot for that.
About Lincoln Murphy