One of the most popular business opportunities today is Software as a Service (SaaS). When it comes to building a SaaS startup with credibility from the start, it can be difficult to secure a place in the extremely competitive startup environment, as I also belong to a Saas startup that is Newsdata.io which provides news API services, and we have used many of these tips to improve our brand’s credibility.
If a new SaaS startup doesn’t achieve even a fraction of the credibility of an established business, it could quickly fall into that unfortunate majority. To keep up with the competition, startups need to work quickly to establish their credibility. To help you out, at SaaSworthy we’ve put together a list of the top 10 ways to build credibility as a new SaaS startup in 2022.
What is a SaaS startup?
SaaS (Software as a Service) startups are companies that use software to provide a service to their customers. It hosts applications and makes them available to clients via the Internet or a web application, which implies that the software is hosted on a SaaS Boot server and can be accessed remotely by the user. These companies design, develop, host, and update their own products.
Top 10 ways to build credibility as a new SaaS startup
Below are the top 10 ways to boost your credibility as a new SaaS startup in 2022. Take a close look at them to get a better understanding.
1. Make the Most of Testimonials
Using customer testimonials to increase your startup’s credibility is one of the easiest ways to do this. Testimonials are opinions of large companies, specialists, or important figures in your sector. The credibility increases as the expert’s followers notice their reviews of your product and most likely want to try it for themselves. Collect testimonials from internet reviews, social media, and polls.
Testimonials have a greater impact on the perceived trustworthiness of an online business than trust seals or even the entire reputation of the business. Share as many positive testimonials as possible. Perhaps you could devote an entire page of your business website to customer testimonials.
Consider using video testimonials instead of written testimonials. They might also work better because viewers can see the emotion in the influencer’s face and voice and as a result, they trust you more. The more a testimonial is relevant to the objectives and needs of the prospect, the more credibility it will induce.
2. Establish a Social Media Presence
You need to be present where your potential customers are, which is usually on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Potential clients often use social media to assess the legitimacy of a new startup or SaaS organization. Those who follow you on social media, actively or passively, support your brand by helping you get more people to trust you.
Make a habit of posting regularly and responding to comments and requests from your audience. Plus, enhance your social media pages by writing a compelling bio including your company logo and cover photo, updating your office hours on Facebook and LinkedIn, and sharing your contact details.
If you want to gain the trust of your audience, facilitate contact and communication with your organization. Being active on popular social media platforms is extremely crucial. Here you can help customers who contact you and engage them with news and information relevant to your business.
3. Share your accomplishments and mentions in the press
Let your customers know if your SaaS startup has been recognized at an awards ceremony or received positive publicity for a recent event. Share it with interested parties, promote it on your LinkedIn profile, and display your media mentions and awards on your website. These help to build credibility. If the media portrayed you positively, your product is probably trustworthy.
Show your results to everyone. Don’t hesitate to show your customers, suppliers, and employees that you are satisfied with your results and the progress of your business. Highlight accolades or accomplishments on your website.
A great strategy for building your media presence is to use free web services to find out about printing opportunities for your agency. They can offer advice to journalists on how to be included in news articles. Whichever way you want to advertise your results, make sure they speak to your trustworthiness.
4. Get customer feedback on your product
According to a BrightLocal survey, 57% of customers will only buy from a business with four or more stars. And 90% of them will read 5–10 product reviews online before trusting a business. Positive reviews from past and current consumers are essential for building credibility.
According to a study, 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal advice. Therefore, contact customers directly to ask for detailed feedback on the items they liked and offer them an incentive in return for their time. Look for reviews from happy customers and create a dedicated testimonials page on your website to show potential customers how many satisfied customers your startup has.
If a review is relevant and clearly demonstrates the benefits of using your product, it is guaranteed to build the trust of readers. It could be much more effective if it’s posted on a third-party site rather than yours.
5. Use Guest Blogs
When it comes to building your credibility, internet exposure is your gateway to success. Since building a huge number of subscribers takes time, you can leverage other people’s audiences through guest blogging on their websites. Guest blogging is one of the most effective methods of building your startup’s credibility and showcasing your brand and voice to others.
Guest blogging could help strengthen your startup’s reputation. There are several sites that welcome well-written guest contributions. Start by posting at least one highDA guest post every week and gradually increase the frequency. To increase the number of visitors to your SaaS site, include a CTA in your author profile.
Traffic from these websites could lead to visibility and leads. Use your professional knowledge to post on other blogs and websites after you have created an intriguing and well-written blog. Provide your readers with information about the industry, product advice, and other things that are helpful or answer their questions.
6. Offer free trials for your paid products
Many customers can understandably be reluctant to trust something that is still in its infancy. Additionally, 92% of customers only believe suggestions from credible sources. Give them a free trial, so they can explore all of your features to welcome them into your party and prove how great you are.
That way when you start downloading they will be better prepared and more secure to buy it. Salesforce offers consumers a 30-day free trial without the need for credit card information or software installation.
Consider offering discounts or free products to people who leave positive reviews. You can also attract more customers by offering premium versions of your product that unlock cool features when they pay extra. As a result, Dropbox increased its subscriber base from 100,000 to 400,000 by providing 16GB of storage for free as part of its referral program.
7. Leverage the reputation of your partners
You’ve probably already created a network of trusted people who are associated with your startup and believe in your value offering. You may already have a prestigious management and investor team. use it for the benefit of your startup.
Look for ways to showcase the knowledge and connections of people currently associated with your business. You can ask board members to make important phone calls or reports on your account. Invite your close circle of partners to share information about your startup on social networks and promote it on LinkedIn.
Also, offer complete profiles of members of your board of directors and testimonials from important partners on your website and in corporate communications. Don’t limit yourself to the founding team. Overestimating the scope of the collaboration or claiming an endorsement that doesn’t exist are the fastest ways to lose credibility.
8. Build high-quality backlinks
Building high-quality external links is a unique SEO technique that still matters a lot to your online credibility. Getting high-quality backlinks shows buyers that you are trusted by trusted sources. So make an effort to include backlinks to your content from credible and relevant websites.
While this does not have a direct influence on search rankings, it will increase the credibility of your material. Of course, the ideal approach to getting high-quality links is to create high-quality content that provides real added value to readers. Getting backlinks from meaningful link aggregators like sites.gov, .edu, and.org helps increase your website authority.
A well-designed landing page should have a CTA that attempts to convert visitors immediately. It is one of the most frequent and effective ways to increase the number of visits to your website. However, adding shoddy and spam links to your content can damage your site’s SEO and cause it to downgrade in search engines.
9. Use of trust seals
Business reliability is one of the most common concerns of customers, and this is especially prevalent with new SaaS startups storing sensitive data in the cloud. , 76% of customers won’t buy anything from a website if they don’t recognize the Trustmark or trust seal. These are often the deciding factors that prevent a prospect from trusting you with their money.
When you have seals from companies like McAfee or MasterCard, customers feel comfortable sharing their personal information with you because they know their data is encrypted and all payments are secure.
Having a seal of trust on your website or landing page helps build customer trust, but where it is also crucial. Next, make your trust seals visible in important areas like the lead capture form, site header/footer, and gateway checkout page so customers have reassurance every time.
10. Provide Only the Best Version of Your
Products If you want to increase your startup’s credibility over the years, you need to build and deliver the best products and services available. Make sure your product or service is of the highest quality. Consumer claim or problem with your product as soon as possible. This way, you can make sure you are providing the best product or service available.
The same goes for your customer service. You can, indeed, have an A + product, but if you don’t provide courteous, reliable, and knowledgeable customer service, your startup’s credibility will deteriorate quickly. The more information you provide about the product or service, the more likely people are to trust you with their money.
To help develop and maintain your credibility, you must deliver the best of the best to customers in everything from products to customer service. Being honest about your business is what will decide its success.
Final Thoughts
I hope I have been able to shed some light on the different ways to build credibility as a new SaaS startup with the help of this article. There is no doubt that following the methods mentioned above will help your new SaaS startup gain credibility. Commit to maintaining your credibility as much as building it.
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