SaaS Marketing Funnel: Detailed Guide

Marketing SaaS funnels differ from those we're used to seeing in traditional services and retail. You need a special approach to promoting your products to run an efficient business in this area. Let's consider the stages of the funnel in more detail and how you can optimize your business promotion strategy at each stage.

What is a SaaS Marketing Funnel

The SaaS marketing funnel is a graphical representation of a customer journey. Traditional businesses are about the journey from the first encounter with a product or brand to conversion. But in SaaS, conversion is only the middle of the funnel. Its final stage is customer retention and loyalty building. This is what makes it unique and makes companies rethink their approach to marketing. 

The funnel got its name because of the graph shape, which narrows at each stage. It's a natural process because not everyone is interested in your product, is satisfied with its characteristics, and likes the pricing. People drop out at every stage, and your task is to minimize these losses by making the narrowing of the funnel smoother and its base as wide as possible.

Why is Marketing Funnel for SaaS Companies Important

A SaaS marketing funnel is more than just a graph. It is a visualization of the key stages of interaction with the target audience and customer base. Each stage requires a unique approach to communication and product promotion. Understanding the funnel's structure lets you choose the best marketing tools for certain stages to optimize conversion, retention, and loyalty rates, leading to increased business efficiency. 

The structure of SaaS funnels may differ depending on the product characteristics, business model, and target audience. Therefore, the standard model should only serve as a guideline for you — a framework that will help you understand the stages of a customer’s interaction. You need to constantly monitor sales performance, test various hypotheses, and improve your marketing strategies.

SaaS Marketing Funnel Stages

Different SaaS funnel models perfectly describe the customer journey in certain industries. We're going to look at an average version that is suitable for most companies. It consists of the following stages.

Introduction

This is a user's first contact with a product or brand. They may see an advertisement on a billboard, a link in search results, or a review on social media. At this stage, many potential customers are eliminated because not every customer is aware of the need for the product or understands how your company can meet it.

Involvement

A user got interested in the product and made some effort to familiarize themselves with it. Usually, they go to a website, view advertising materials, or download a brochure. At this stage, you can grab their attention with a catchy call to action (CTA).

Wants 

So, a user already knows they want to use your product. But they still have doubts — they may postpone the conversion or take advantage of a competitor's offer. At this stage of the funnel, SaaS companies often offer a free test or demo of their product. Such an offer can be a strong argument in favor of your business.

Conversion

This is the moment of the first monetary transaction. In a traditional sales funnel, attention to a customer fades at this stage. But in SaaS, everything just begins. It's important to welcome a new user and provide proper support. According to Userpilot, 86% of customers remain loyal if the company helps them during the adaptation period. Conversely, 74% of users switch to a competitor within a few months if a business loses interest in them during the conversion phase.

Retention

Although this stage is not unique to SaaS, it is crucial for companies operating in this field. They should take care of customer satisfaction with their product and monitor the slightest signs that a user intends to cancel their subscription or end their cooperation. If this happens, it is necessary to analyze the reasons for the outflow to improve your service and increase retention rates.

Upsales

Ideally, a company should not only support customers but also increase their value. A company can do this by offering additional products, features, or software modules. It needs to track the needs of existing users and find ways to meet them.

Expansion

The customer base can be expanded not only by the company's employees but also by the subscribers themselves. The most loyal of them, called brand advocates, do so voluntarily, without additional incentives. Others can be offered compensation, such as a discount for attracting new users or a percentage of their regular payments. 

Steps to Optimize Your SaaS Marketing Funnel

You can't turn a funnel into a column, but you can expand it by reducing losses at each stage. We will tell you what tools you will need.

1. The stage of acquaintance — PR

A user is more likely to be interested in a new product from a familiar brand than from a brand they hear about for the first time. To attract the attention of potential customers, you can:

• start cooperation with top experts in your industry;
• place information about the company in specialized catalogs;
• set up contextual brand advertising;
• create a vast network of links;
• apply for participation in thematic offline or online events. 

2. Engagement stage - final offer

If a visitor has reviewed your product characteristics and is about to leave the site, stop them. Make them a favorable offer - a discount for the first months, an extended free trial, or a gift in the form of an additional product module. 

Claspo will help you to effectively retain a potential customer. The widgets can promote your special offer and redirect visitors to an appropriate page to download the product or select a pricing plan at a reduced price.

With the help of Claspo, you can easily create a widget that will be displayed when visitors try to leave the site. It can be customized to your corporate style using a simple visual editor without any design or programming skills.

3. Wish stage - email newsletter

Does a customer still have doubts and is in no hurry to sign up? Send them an email with a personalized business offer. Offer them a free test or schedule a demo. Add a compelling CTA and time-limited bonuses to motivate them to quickly move to the next stage of the marketing funnel for SaaS. Emails provide a lot of benefits to businesses. According to the Data & Marketing Association, their return on investment reaches 1:42 - every dollar of investment brings $42 in revenue.

With the help of Claspo widgets, you can collect email addresses directly on your website. Our library includes many templates for collecting contact information, and flexible settings allow you to stop showing the widget to visitors who have already subscribed to your newsletter.

4. Conversion stage - training from the developer

Some SaaS products can be quite difficult to understand. Usually, developers offer detailed instructions and knowledge bases, but this is not always enough for customers. To increase the level of loyalty and ensure that a user doesn't cancel their subscription, you can offer them free or discounted training. The best option would be a webinar with an instructor who can assess a customer's reaction, collect information about their additional needs, and identify problem areas.

The founders of the TMetric app chose a more straightforward way. They used Claspo widgets inside the app to simplify the onboarding process. These widgets briefly described the main features of the product, announced updates after each release, and directed users to pages with detailed descriptions. Thus, it was easier for users to familiarize themselves with TMetric and explore its capabilities.

5. Retention - rewarding regular subscribers

Each of us wants attention — this is a basic rule of human psychology. According to Segment, 60% of users agree to long-term cooperation with a business when they receive a personalized customer experience. Retention tools at this stage of the SaaS funnel are:

• discounts for long-term subscriptions (6, 12, 18, 24 months);
• birthday gifts;
• coupons for the anniversary of your subscription.

6. Upsales - personalized pricing plans

Sometimes, customers don't upgrade because they don't need all the features of the extended version. They would like to upgrade only specific features without overpaying for anything else. If you see certain metrics reaching the upper limits for several months, offer to create a personalized plan - more expensive than the current one but cheaper than the next one on the list. 

You can tell customers about your offer in the next email newsletter and direct them to the site to purchase a custom plan. Claspo allows you to show a widget only to those visitors who came to the site from a specific email campaign, so it can meet your customers on the main page, remind them of your offer, and send them to a page describing their personal plans.

7. Expansion - referral links

Existing customers can attract new subscribers — they just need a little motivation. To reward them, add a referral link to their personal account. If a new visitor follows it and makes a transaction, your customers will receive discounts, promo codes, coupons, or other rewards.

Improve Your SaaS Marketing Funnel with Claspo

Claspo is your reliable assistant at most stages of the funnel. It is suitable for any business — from a small startup to a leader of a particular market segment. Our widgets can be used for various purposes, from simple information sharing to conducting customer surveys. You can create them yourself in our simple visual editor, choose ready-made templates from our library, or order them "turnkey." Claspo easily integrates with popular CMS, so you can quickly add a widget to your website without professional help.

We are constantly improving our platform to make it a valuable hub for anyone looking to level up their website, increase conversions, and improve user experience. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive even more exciting content and learn about all the cool stuff Claspo is doing.