Software as a service (SaaS) companies are on the rise. These businesses use software instead of physical products, and receive revenue through subscriptions.

So what makes this type of company successful? Here are a few examples of SaaS companies that are thriving and what they're doing right.

Netflix

Netflix is one of the most popular SaaS companies. One of the reasons they're so successful in such a competitive field is their low churn rate.

The customer churn rate is the percentage of customers that cancel or stop using a service. High churn tends to mean customer dissatisfaction.

This streaming giant has a churn rate of 2.5%. One of their main competitors, Hulu's churn rate is around 5% while

So why is Netflix's churn rate so low?

They have a product people want

Netflix has managed to stay ahead of the curve by offering popular media and creating their own shows and movies. They're able to constantly input new and exciting things to watch, keeping their customers willing to pay every month.

Successful market analysis

For companies wanting to enter a competitive field, market analysis is essential. Market analysis is the process of understanding your competitors through data analysis.

Market analysis can include analyzing demand, competition, target market, and pricing. Netflix understands demand, bringing the shows and movies customers want and offering exclusive products. Netflix also knows its competition and works to stay ahead. As a SaaS, they have all the data about their customers at their fingertips. They know the popularity of their series, what type of user watches a program, and which shows and movies have the same type of audience. This is why the for you section is incredibly targeted and effective. Netflix's price is competitive. They offer commercial-free shows at a similar price to their competitors who use ads.

Netflix uses tiered pricing

Tiered pricing helps appeal to a wide variety of customers through different pricing for different options. Costs for Netflix range from around $9 to around $19.

Zoom

Zoom was relatively unknown before the pandemic, but since has become a household name, overtaking competitors like Skype and Facetime. This SaaS is successful for several reasons.

It's user friendly

Zoom is incredibly simple. With just the click of a link, you can connect to a virtual meeting. They also understood their competition. While their niche may have seemed competitive, the other companies struggled with complicated log-on processes and glitches.

They knew their target audience

They know their target audience is broad and made it accessible for all. Their platform is able to handle over a hundred meeting participants with minimal glitches.

Tiered pricing

Zoom has a free service, allowing up to 100 participants. Their free service is good enough to hook potential customers but not too good that they don't want to upgrade to the paid service.

They adapted

Many companies struggled during the pandemic, such as the short-lived streaming company, Quibi. On the other hand, zoom adapted to the new climate and thrived, despite technical difficulties.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that works on customer-relationship management. They've been incredibly successful for years.

They grow with a company

Salesforce understands that companies expand, and works to meet their needs in the future. They plan for every scenario, and their software is able to help both small businesses and big ones.

Their platform works for all of their clients

Knowing your target audience can reduce churn rate and up your gross revenue. This company has a broad target audience and is able to adapt to this.

They understand the importance of marketing

Salesforce has great marketing and focuses on upselling it's product.

Shopify

Shopify is an eCommerce company that allows people to set up an online store.

They reduced churn through good customer service

This company offers accessible customer service to reduce churn. A high churn rate can signal many things, but ultimately customer dissatisfaction is a common reason customers churn.

Shopify simplified a complicated process

Setting up an online business used to be a complicated process that required website building and financial knowledge. Like zoom, Shopify mained this easy and accessible.

How to Make Your SaaS successful with Causal

Every business is different, but learning from other successful SaaS companies can help yours grow.

Reduce Churn

All of these companies work to reduce their customer churn rate. This is especially important for an SaaS whose money comes over time, not from a lump sum paid at front.

Casuals SaaS Model will provide clean graphs, so you can keep track of new, renewed, and churned customers. Tracking churn over time will help you spot the weaknesses and strengths that define your customers' experience.

Conduct Financial Analysis

Financial analysis is more than just the money in and out. Good financial analysis can help you corner the market, allocate money to meet your company's goals, and understand your competition.

Financial analysis should be about the knowledge the data gives you, not the complicated equations and tedious manual data inputs. Causal will make a model for you. All you have to do is input the numbers. We'll take care of the rest.

Communicate effectively with your team

. Our interactive dashboards allow you to have the data at your fingertips and share it with teams and investors. Our models are live, so you don't need to send out a new version everytime you change data.

Looks toward growth

Causal's templates allow you to adjust the model to your company. We're here for you from the beginning. Our models will help you plan for any and all situations so you can see the outcome of your business decision before you make it.