Trying to solve the mystery of why your SaaS marketing strategy isn’t yielding as many conversions as you hoped for is a dreaded task.
It’s easy enough to look at someone else’s landing page and see flaws, but it’s difficult when your own design is in question. Fortunately, the reason you’re getting low conversions is probably not incredibly complicated and we’ve got the most common reasons here for you.
Top Reasons for Low Conversions in SaaS Marketing
1. Lack of Micro-Commitments
Micro-commitments are a powerful way to get people slightly invested in a landing page. Asking them for a small piece of information, such as their industry or job title, is more encouraging than going straight for the high-friction details.
The idea is that by asking for these almost meaningless details, when it comes time to ask them for an email address it won’t seem as intrusive and people are more willing.
Furthermore, reconsider your approach to forms. Micro-commitments should come first but if you present a long-form afterwards, it won’t help much. A better approach is to use a multi-step form. Our recent breakdown of landing page examples will give you more insight into creating a good form.
2. No Problem is Presented
The number of pages I see which don’t present a problem the software solves is ridiculous. It should be obvious, but this is something a lot of people forget about.
Tell your potential customers what your software does, how it benefits their business, and what problems it will solve for them. Even if the problem is clear to you, some people simply don’t realize how something can help them until you show them the problems.
Not only will this help relate to potential customers but listing some problems that you can solve is going to make them really think, “Huh, maybe this software will actually benefit my business”.
3. The Benefits Aren’t Made Clear
Just like I said before, you have to make it clear what problems your software resolves and you also have to explain the benefits of using it.
Maybe your software comes with a mobile app which competitors don’t offer or perhaps you offer live chat assistance. Anything that’s even remotely unique about your software, make these benefits clear to customers.
4. You Aren’t Showing the Software
This is a big one. It might seem like a small reason but people want to actually see the software. Without going through the hassle of downloading the software just to see the interface design, they want to see how it looks.
Because while your software might solve lots of customers’ problems, if it has an awful design then users will look elsewhere. Assuming your UI design is appealing, there’s no reason for not showcasing it.
All you need to do it take screenshots of the software in action, place a few on your landing page, and this shows people what to expect. Otherwise, you’re going to be losing a lot of conversions.
5. Targeting the Wrong People
If you target individuals who have very little interest in what you’re selling, of course your SaaS marketing approach will fail.
Research your perfect audience to determine who is most interested in your software and what groups it will sell best to. A realignment of your target audience will quickly turn the campaign around for the better.
6. Having a Slow Loading Website
Poor user experience directly affects the number of conversions you’ll get. Pixelated images, old designs, and unclarity are a few reasons for users disliking your site. But above all of these are slow loading speeds.
On top of sluggish loading causing users to navigate away from pages, search engines will penalize your rankings.
Our recommendation is that you use either Pingdom or GTmetrix. Both tools can help to minimize landing page load speeds so that a lot fewer people are discouraged by slow loading.
7. Site Not Optimized for Mobile
Even if you aren’t specifically targeting mobile users as part of your SaaS marketing strategy, it’s good practice to optimize your landing pages for mobile devices.
This is an easy thing to check – just go on your phone and head to the landing page. Does anything look messy or out of place? Fix it.
Consider hiding some elements for mobile to make the page look tidier on a smaller screen. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to get assistance with this SaaS marketing tip.
8. You’re Simply Not Persuasive Enough
Landing pages are used to achieve a goal: building an email list, getting SaaS demos, increasing sales, and so forth. So with that in mind, you need to persuade people that your software is what they need.
It’s not their job to persuade themselves to make the purchase or sign up, that’s on you. A poorly structured page or a dreary design instantly dampens their enthusiasm towards what you’re offering.
There’s not a single piece of advice for making pages more persuasive other than taking into consideration all of the tips we’ve given you thus far, and asking yourself “If I was visiting this page for the first time, would I actually want to hand over my information?”.
9. Completing the Purchase isn’t Straightforward
So, you’ve persuaded them that they need your software. The next step is for them to pay you and get that their hands on it. You’re not in the clear just yet – there’s still a chance of shopping cart abandonment.
Some people consider this a natural part of sales, but this is only partially true. Yes, people add to their shopping cart and abandon it regardless of how well a job you do – this happens. However, plenty of abandoned carts are because people get distracted, dissuaded, or put off along the way.
The solution is simple. Make the payment process as straightforward as it can be. Get rid of any navigation menus that could distract, ensure there are no security problems that cause uncertainty about entering sensitive information, and just make this final hurdle as effortless as possible for them.
10. The Landing Page is Terrible
As rough as this might sound, the fact is that not everyone is great at landing page design.
Landing pages may take months to perfect with A/B testing, and there are many easy mistakes that can be made which drastically affect how well they convert.
Rather than dwell on landing page practices yet again, check out our best and worst practices guide. Use each example to find where you’re going wrong and see how to improve your landing pages.
Conclusion
With the help of these important points, you should now be able to deduce why your conversions are low. On top of that, you’ll be able to come up with a better SaaS marketing strategy which takes these common mistakes into consideration.
Alternatively, maybe this guide has highlighted the difficulties that come with marketing. A PPC agency like KonvertLab can help ease this pressure. With our years of experience, we can develop a strategy specifically around your business’s goals. Start by booking a meeting and we’ll discuss the different solutions we can provide you with!