Software as a Service application is all the rage today. The lucrative SaaS market is expected to grow by roughly 12% in 2023, up from a 9.8% growth rate this year. In fact, Gartner says that SaaS is the fastest growing segment in IT.

By starting an SaaS platform, you can help businesses keep operational costs down while improving their speed and efficiency. But the SaaS market is saturated with many players, with big brands like Salesforce getting a lions share of the sales.

1. Find out what your customers need through market research.

Market research always comes first before running a successful SaaS business. If you dont have the time to perform your own market research, try investing in paid databases or rely on existing knowledge management systems.

Otherwise, offer free trials to attract your customers to your system. Then, provide incentives for them to want to fill out a survey, such as a coupon for a discount on your SaaS services.

2. Invite clients to test systems for reduced fees.

You dont necessarily have to get all your software services away for free. Maybe you can start your new customers on a trial.

Then, entice them with offers to try out upgrades for reduced fees. In the process, make sure you find a way to get them to offer you feedback, so you know if its useful.

3. Monitor what is and what isnt working.

Customer feedback will provide you with the most clues as to what will work and what wont work. However, you can also keep investigating the products/services you sell.

Having your development team using your own products will provide you with the best insight into how they perform for your customers. This self-evaluation of your systems will help you correct issues too, and this improves your SaaS offerings all the more.

4. Make the necessary changes.

Immersing yourself in your own online software products will provide you with the best feedback for improvement. Finding out what your customers like and dont like also will help you see what you could change or add.

By the way, its good to have a forum set up that has a feature request thread in the help section. This will be an excellent place to allow your customers to share their opinions, which will shape how future SaaS sessions will run.

5. Encrypt your SaaS software.

Security matters no matter what you or your clients industry is. Make sure you encrypt your SaaS software with as high of a level of privacy coding as you possibly can. You could save all parties using online apps from having cyber data stolen, leaked or sold. This is critical given the focus on data privacy and data security today.