The Importance of Tracking for SaaS Businesses

The article highlights how crucial tracking is for SaaS businesses to gain insights into their performance and make informed decisions.

• The author initially believed that simply tracking all metrics was the key to success.
• However, they realized that the real breakthrough came from taking action based on the data and setting goals to improve key metrics.
• The article emphasizes the importance of having benchmarks to understand how your SaaS business is performing relative to others.

The 2013 SaaS Small Business Conversion Survey

To address the need for benchmarks, the author conducted a survey of SaaS startups and small businesses. The survey received over 1,500 responses, providing valuable data about various business metrics.

• The survey focused on businesses that have achieved product-market fit, been in operation for at least 6 months, and have monthly recurring revenue between $1,000 and $500,000.
• The author's goal was to create a free resource for SaaS businesses to help them benchmark their performance and set better goals.

Survey Results

The article presents the top-level results of the 2013 SaaS Small Business Conversion Survey. It provides insights into key metrics such as:

• Business Type: 79.2% of respondents were B2B businesses, while 20.8% were B2C.
• User Acquisition Strategies: The most effective strategies included customer/user referrals (17.2%), email marketing (13.8%), content marketing (13.6%), and SEO/SEM (11.4%).
• Average Monthly Recurring Revenue: $10,550
• Average Revenue Per User: B2B $140.41, B2C $16.90
• Average Monthly Churn Rate: 3.2%
• Average Website Visitor-to-Free-Trial Conversion Rate: 8.4%
• Average Free-Trial-to-Customer Conversion Rate: 11.0%
• Average Website Visitor-to-Customer Conversion Rate: 2.2%

The Value of Benchmarking for SaaS Businesses

By sharing these metrics, the author aims to provide valuable benchmarks for other SaaS businesses to compare their performance and make more informed decisions.

• The survey data can help businesses identify areas where they are excelling or lagging behind the industry average.
• It provides insights into effective user acquisition strategies and churn rate management.
• The article encourages businesses to use the data to set realistic goals and track their progress over time.

The Future of SaaS Business Data

The author concludes by acknowledging that this is just a small step towards providing valuable data to SaaS startups and small businesses. They plan to conduct further analysis of the data and continue to offer resources to help businesses grow.

• The author will be publishing a post about the execution and promotion of the survey, offering further insights into the process.
• The article emphasizes the ongoing need for data and benchmarks to support the growth and success of SaaS businesses.