How to Reduce Churn by Better Targeting your SaaS Users

Churn is one of the biggest indicators of long term success for SaaS companies. The most profitable SaaS companies have monthly churn around only 0.58% per month; a max of 7% a year. However, in the first 90 days of signing up, 80% of users “churn” out. It’s not an easy game to play. Reducing churn should be a top priority for all SaaS teams. And since customer acquisition is one of the biggest cost factors, it’s vital that you figure out how to make your product “sticky” as early as possible for users you get to sign up.

One way to do that is by better catering to your specific customer groups to reduce the likelihood they leave. Here are some tips to reduce churn by better targeting your SaaS users.

Here are some tips to reduce churn by better targeting your SaaS users:

Create helpful and relevant content for specific user groups.

Oftentimes, you may know how your product can be utilized better than any users. You could have the most dynamic product with a ton of features that apply to a ton of different user groups across industries. For instance, if marketing teams are one of your top target audiences and you can see how your product’s features could really help their processes, you need to communicate that well. You can create guides for industries on how to implement your product or create content specific to the biggest problems for those industries positioning your product as a solution. Having content available for users from those groups is important for a successful onboarding and to hook them on your product long term.

Set up targeted onboarding processes.

Not all users signing in to your product will be from the same line of work or using your product the same. Your onboarding process should reflect that so users from different groups are able to integrate your product into their routines more effectively and quickly. At sign up, have users get specific about what kind of work they do and send them through relative onboarding processes. Instead of running through all the features, select a few for each that are most useful for each group. Have new users interact and use your product to create or do something related to their work specifically to get them engaging right away. In Hubspot’s onboarding process, they ask users specifically how they will use Hubspot to tailor their experience.

Send targeted messages during the onboarding process.

80% of users are likely to leave your product within the first 90 days. If users login to your product once or twice and then start to fall off, naturally, you want to reach out to them in the days after they signed up to continue to bring them back. Usually, you would do this through email or, if possible and users have opted in, push notifications. You can be more effective at bringing users back if you target them with messages that are relevant to them. For instance, sending messages to marketing team customers after sign up recommending a feature for their processes. You’re more likely to get someone back to your product with some useful information specific to their work. Try using Beamer to send segmented updates.

Approach users at various activity levels differently.

At any given time, you will have a myriad of users who are using your product at different “activity” levels. You may have users who are actively using your product daily and are highly engaged. You may have others who have signed in a couple of time since signing up a week ago. You may have users who are close to falling off. As mentioned above, keeping in contact and bringing them back is important but you won’t approach them the same. For users who are actively using your product, you want to keep them on board with updates and new ways to use your product, but not be too aggressive. For users who have fallen off, you want to send maybe a special offer to continue or loop them in on a brand new feature. DocuSign sends non-sales-y, helpful tip emails to luke warm users:

Segment and target your updates and messages.

Additionally, every time you release new features, create updates and content specific for user groups showing them how they can use the new features for their work. The adoption rate will be much higher, keep these groups onboard with your product through changes. Use Beamer to update users of changes and new features. Beamer is an interactive changelog and newsfeed that sits right within your website and app interface. Users can scroll through your feed of updates from right within your product. You can create updates for anything in Beamer: news, new features, updates, promotions, etc. You can segment your Beamer updates so that specific user groups see updates that are relevant to them. For example, if you have a new calendar feature, send an update to your marketing customers about how they can use this to better manage content calendars. Beamer has push notifications you can use to reach users not even signed into your product to bring them back and engage them. By better targeting your SaaS user groups, you can better show how your product is the solution they are looking for, no matter what line of work they are in. For a way to update and engage all of your user groups, try Beamer today.