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Ask HN: 1000+ visitors but 1 customer, how to get more conversions on your SaaS?

6 points by sanjogg ↗ HN
I have a saas, and I seem to gotten the hang of getting traffic to my site. However, the conversions remain low. Over 1000 people have viewed the website, ~400 users, 1 paying customer. How do I make this rate better? Any generalized tip that could apply here? For reference, my saas is a AI tool that assists in video production.

I have been not paying for marketing yet. I wanted to exhaust my options with free marketing on reddit, directories, etc., and optimize the conversion rate before I shell out money. Thank you in advance!

12 comments

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paulcole
Is the traffic real people or just bots? Do you know how to tell the difference?

If they are real people, how many pages are they viewing per visit? What’s average session duration? Where do they drop off?

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sanjogg
They are real, yes. I have post hog implemented for analytics, and I can see the recordings!

The duration varies, but most drop off from the landing page (60%), some reach billing and drop off (~30%), ~10% try the free plan and then drop off haha

XCSme
Just curious, do you use their cloud or self-hosted version? I thought the self-hosted version is no longer supported. Is the free cloud tier enough?
8chanAnon
I've been asking the same question myself though I'm not trying to get paying customers. I'm offering free stuff but I can't get many takers. One customer per 1000 views is pretty much the best you can expect. You need a million views to snag 1000 customers. I would suggest that you stick to your plan and go through the free routes first. This will help you to gauge the level of interest before you bankrupt yourself paying for marketing (which never lives up to expectations).

I do have an anecdote. I have a repository on the Internet Archive. One of my items had just a few hundred views but, all of a sudden, it accumulated over 3000 views. I posted a comment on the item asking what sparked the sudden interest. Someone replied that it was a user comment on Youtube. Makes me wonder if I'm not making a huge mistake by not registering on Youtube so I can post self-promotional comments everywhere.

Obligatory shameless plug is below.

https://8chananon.github.io

sanjogg
Interesting, never considered YouTube! Also helps to hear that the conversion rate is pretty normal haha. Thanks!
Lionga
Make your tool better. Clearly the users either do not understand it or do not find it valueable
altdataseller
You are basically asking a $1m question. And expecting someone to answer it for free.

And you aren’t even sharing your product with us.