In competitive and growing industries — like in the software as a service (SaaS) market — it can be nice to benchmark yourself and review high level trends to determine how your SaaS company compares to others in your space.
Using our expansive database, we analyzed more than 20,000 U.S. companies that provide a SaaS offering to determine how these companies market and sell their services online.
Through our platform, which uses web indexing technology to collect data from more than 100 million companies worldwide, we created a snapshot of tactics SaaS companies use to acquire business.
Here, we break down some of the most interesting findings from our recent SaaS data study:
90 percent of companies offering SaaS solutions promote using social media
The findings reveal that most companies — 90 percent — include social channels as part of their sales strategy. This includes an analysis of any social plugins included on companies’ main pages.
45 percent use marketing automation
Of the 20,000+ companies analyzed, a little under half — 45 percent — are taking advantage of marketing automation tools like HubSpot and Marketo to create a more seamless sales approach. That’s less than the amount who use more traditional means of marketing to prospects, including newsletter signup forms. SaaS companies are arguably missing out on the lead management benefits of these automation tools.
56 percent use newsletter sign ups
Speaking of newsletters, 56 percent of companies offering SaaS including a newsletter sign up on their main page. This shows the relative popularity of email marketing in the SaaS space as a means to attract prospects and ideally hold their attention.
A majority offer a trial version
One of the potentially more surprising findings from our data study: More than three out of every four SaaS offerings include a trial version for the product. The fact that 76 percent offer this to users indicates the need for users to experience and understand a product before making a purchase.
37 percent promote a live demo
Just half of the amount of companies offering SaaS also promote a walk-through live demo on their main page. What can be nice about a walk-through demo versus a trial version is that a user can gain valuable insights and have important questions answered by a live customer support person versus having to teach themselves (or relying on a digital kind of walk-through) to gain familiarity with an offering.
SaaS offerings strongly prefer the term “solution” over other terms to describe the software
Many SaaS offerings use a more holistic word to describe what they provide customers. Our analysis showed that 48 percent of SaaS providers frame their offering as a “solution”, while just 19 percent use the term “product” to describe what they provide. A solution seems to connote an all-encompassing, sweeping kind of offering, something that tangibly alters how you do business and helps you overcome challenges. While SaaS offerings are ultimately products to purchase, the term doesn’t really have the same ring of “solution” when you think about it.
The infographic below highlights are main takeaways from this SaaS data dive. If you're interested in learning more, check out our article on how to create a list of the 1,000 most interesting SaaS companies.
