get ready for 2020 SaaS benchmarks
It’s not often we get legitimately excited for a webinar, but we are psyched for KeyBanc and Venture Beat’s upcoming 2020 SaaS Survey, where the topic as always is SaaS benchmarks. They’re going to be covering the usuals like comparing metrics across funding stages and cash flow vs. profitability benchmarks, while also adding a new focus on operational adjustments companies have made in wake of our changing environment.
You can check out last year’s survey here for a sneak peek at the level of detail. It’s great stuff.
💌 Klaviyo reported that since March, email conversion rates are up by around 22% and email generated revenue up 60%. The reason is obvious; consumers are spending even more time with their faces in front of tiny screens and have nothing but time on their hands! While the article focuses on retail revenue, their tips for standing out in an increasingly competitive email marketing landscape are sound. Namely, the idea of not sending emails unless there is real value or intent behind the message. Just because open rates are higher doesn’t mean you should increase your output, and one unnecessary email can ruin your relationship with your subscribers.
💥Our increasingly content-heavy culture can make it difficult for your message to get heard, and understanding the nuances of content distribution and content promotion is key to cutting through the noise. Distribution is the strategic piece – it’s where we determine who our audience is and how to engage them. Promotion is more tactical by definition and looks at the different channels your audience consumes content through and how to leverage them. We liked GrooveHQ’s thoughts on how to make sure your promotional tactics fit with your distribution strategy, and can’t agree enough that you should only target one or two channels aggressively at once. Unless you have a massive marketing team, you’ll likely be spreading them thin.
👔 CTO is probably the least defined c-suite position because the functions they serve and areas they own vary from company to company. Those focuses are largely dependent on how mature the business they work for is, with some companies requiring more technically inclined CTOs and others needing ones with stronger leadership capabilities. The difficulty many CTOs see with transitioning from a tech-focused CTO to a leadership one is a lack of soft skills. Engineers and developers speak their own languages (pun intended) that people outside of that world find it hard to relate to, so it’s arguably equally as important for them to be able to effectively communicate to other leadership than to be technical masterminds themselves.
😍 New SaaS startups often don’t invest the time to craft a well thought out customer success strategy because let's face it, early on the focus is always going to be customer acquisition. But it’s worth taking a step back once things have settled down to make sure your customer success strategy is where it needs to be. At the most basic level, your plan should cover how your CS team is translating feedback from both your customers and sales and marketing team into actionable items for the product and be able to prioritize these action items.
🐈 The SaaS Podcast had another great one last week. The episode features Jacob Eiting, founder and CEO of RevenueCat, a platform that helps developers process in-app subscriptions. Jacob brings up the idea of a company-founder fit, a relatively new concept, but one that makes perfect sense. Company-founder fit doesn't necessarily mean you’re building out your life’s passion project, but that you have an in-depth understanding of the gap your product aims to fill. For Jacob, that was helping developers be more successful. He also admits he’s no marketing guru, but he hit the nail on the head with their content strategy. Their one goal was never to try to sell the platform, and instead, focus on providing value to their audience.