How to Prove Your SaaS Product’s ROI [Updated]

Think About This

• 2021 Venture capital investment in digital health companies totaled more than $57 billion, an increase of nearly 80% compared with 2020.
• Gartner estimates that B2B buyers only spend 17% of their customer journey meeting with potential suppliers. 27% of their time is spent researching independently online.
• Buyers noted that if a supplier produced content that made the process of buying easier, they were 2.8% more likely to have an easier decision.

1. Back up Your Claims with Social Proof

In his book, Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini defines and explains the concept of social proof:

Social proof states that we determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct. We view a behavior as correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.

It’s always been a good bet to trust the wisdom of the crowd, because large groups of people almost always choose the safe option. When we’re unsure of what is right, we defer to the choices of others.

This phenomenon is even more powerful if we can relate to the people who have performed the action.

For example, prospects are influenced by people who are like them. Product managers trust the opinion of other product managers.

Social proof is so powerful that it’s become foundational to driving conversions and demonstrating the ROI of your product. Without it, you’re just making promises with any evidence.

Testimonials

Good testimonials deliver context and specificity. It’s easy to have a quote from one of your customers, but it’s much more effective if the content directly relates to the subject at hand. If the quote articulates a measurable result, even better.

Apollo LIMS has a clear testimonial from clients and trusted industry professionals on each page of their website. Many outline the benefits and top reasons people deploy Apollo LIMS in their labs.

Case Studies

Testimonials are great for in-the-moment validation, but sometimes prospects need to know how the sausage gets made. That means detailed case studies that support a desirable outcome with real data.

At Golden Spiral, we always lead with the case study result. That’s what people want to know, and that’s what will convince them to buy your product.

SureTest went further than a textual case study and invited a software partner and a customer to be a part of an audio case study which launched prior to a HIMSS event and led to a boost in online lead conversions, greater booth traffic, and event attendance.

Reviews

93% of potential buyers read reviews before buying. 84% of people trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation. 68% of people form an opinion after reading between one and six reviews.

You can use online reviews on your site, but this type of content is particularly powerful on review sites like G2 and Trust Pilot.

Epic and Cerner are known as the 800-pound gorillas in the marketplace, yet NextGen and WebPT show up because of high user ratings. Also worthy of note is G2’s own desire for listening to the voice of the customer.

Advocates

Few things are as persuasive as unsolicited appreciation. When people really love your product, they’ll post about it online. It’s hard to effectively encourage this type of behavior, but you need to capture and promote it when it happens.

Airtable is an excellent piece of software. Because of that fact, they have a lot of fans. Every time someone advocates, they’ll be much more likely to believe Airtable is worth purchasing.

Trust Icons

Trust icons are the modern-day stamps of approval.

The classic example is a rating from the Better Business Bureau. These days, logos of noteworthy clients and awards from third parties serve as the small, yet powerful, indicators of quality for products.

SE Ranking goes all out by combining data (another type of social proof) with awards from G2 Crowd, Capterra, and Finances Online. Notice how these are right besides the free trial button?

2. Find the Right Messages with Voice of Customer Data

UX designers have a saying: “You are not the user.” This reminds them to keep an open mind and work to empathize with the actual users. Just because the designers think they know their audience doesn’t mean they actually do.

Marketers need a similar saying: “You are not the prospect.” Too often, we fall prey to thinking we know exactly what matters to our audience, when in fact we only know what matters to us.

Naturally, this bias makes our campaigns and messaging less effective. It creates a disconnect between how we talk about our product and what matters to our customers.

Luckily, there’s a corrective mechanism: voice of customer (VoC) data. This information is just what it sounds like: qualitative data sourced directly from customers through surveys, interviews, support emails, and basically any other type of interaction where customers give you feedback.

What’s the value? You get to learn the challenges and ROI that truly matter to your audience, and you discover how you should connect those ideas to your product.

Quickbooks gets it. The message “shockingly easy to use” seems to be the most important benefit for their audience. So they’ve put it at the top of the page and connected it back to their customers.

VoC also helps you prioritize your messaging hierarchy, or the order in which messages appear on the page. The order in which the following copy appears on the Quickbooks homepage is decided by the frequency it appears in the customer data.

Suffice it to say, VoC data is a scientific approach to connecting your product’s ROI to what your customers value. Without it, you’re just guessing.

How do you determine the voice of the customer at a deep level? Worthix has developed a SaaS platform that helps companies understand their worth and keep their value propositions updated by deploying AI-assisted surveys that tap into customers’ decision-making process, capture the voice of customer, and harness raw, unbiased insight that delivers a clear portrait of what value means to customers.

3. Promise a Brighter Future with Outcomes-Based Copy

In the end, it’s the execution of your messaging that determines whether people understand and believe your product’s ROI. More often than not, it’s the actual copy on the page that will influence someone the most.

So what’s the best way to articulate the life-altering returns of your solution? For copywriters, this line of inquiry quickly turns into a debate about features versus benefits.

But that misses the point. The most effective copy focuses on outcomes, i.e., what will change for your prospects or the ideal outcome they’d like to achieve.

Mixpanel does an excellent job of outcomes-based copy. The outcomes aren’t unbelievable or too distant; they’re immediate and realistic. It’s easy to comprehend how you can achieve these results using Mixpanel’s system.

The First Thing to Do After You Read This Article

Audit your content and copy:

Step 1: Take a look at your social proof. Is it working hard enough? Do the testimonials convince? Do your case studies describe the details of how your product delivers value?

Step 2: Do some voice of customer research. Most companies are way behind in this area, and making sure you have the right messaging is fundamental to acquiring new customers.

Step 3: Once you know what you need to say, make sure you’re saying it in a compelling fashion. All your copy — particularly your landing page and web copy — needs to support or directly articulate the outcomes your product delivers.

Updated from July 23, 2019 and December 11, 2020