In the SaaS world, it's a constant struggle to reduce churn. In fact, more than 40% of users who sign up for your software's free trial never come back, according to Patrick Mackenzie, former CEO at Starfighter.
One way to battle this is to help customers find value in your product and solidify it as a part of their daily workflows. Once they've done that, you bet they will stick around longer.
That's exactly what our partner Clearbit, a data enrichment, prospecting, and personalization tool, found: when customers integrate Clearbit with their other tools and incorporate it into their day-to-day, they are less likely to churn.
One of the strategies Clearbit uses to reduce churn? Surfacing integrations to their customers. Customers using just one integration with a product have 10% or more better retention than customers with no integrations, according to a ProfitWell study. And that percentage increases even further the more integrations customers use.
Onboarding emails
A sign-up is one thing, but how do you get users to activate? One of the main ways to turn a registered user into an active user is through onboarding emails. Onboarding messaging can be tailored to the actions your customers take (or don't take!) while they're learning the ins and outs of your product. Nudging them towards solutions like integrations can help turn new users into paid customers and reduce churn.
"[Integrations] have particular importance early in a customer's lifecycle because they show the value of your product very quickly," says Matt Sornson, Clearbit's Chief Marketing Officer. "This means you want to promote them as soon as possible. We do this through targeted nurture emails to new customers highlighting our integrations."
Clearbit set up a custom onboarding flow for self-serve users to trigger a personalized email to anyone who uses a Zap involving Clearbit. In that email, they celebrate the milestone, and suggest more Zapier use cases to engage the user further and encourage them to continue using the product.
Segmenting these users with integration-specific messaging pays off in a big way for Clearbit. The recipients of these Zapier-focused emails are more likely to continue using Clearbit (and pay for it!) than those who don't receive them. According to Sornson, that's because Zapier users "are already strong advocates of automation and data routing, so the education piece (why they should leverage data) is already accomplished."
Zapier users are more likely to engage with your product long term, so promoting your Zapier integration early on can mean lower churn rates down the road.
Help docs
In your own knowledge base, you likely already have a help doc about how your users can connect to Zapier. But Clearbit takes it a step further with step-by-step tutorials on how to pair popular apps—like Close.io and HubSpot—with Zapier. That way, when users search for help with connecting their favorite app, they don't hit a dead end.
These help docs, which live on Clearbit's site, serve two purposes:
They offer step-by-step walkthroughs to customers who are ready to use a Zapier integration.
They provide a ready-made solution to Clearbit prospects who are looking for a specific integration before paying for Clearbit.
For example, if you search for "Close.io integration" in Clearbit's help site, you'll see that Clearbit integrates with Close.io via Zapier. That helps new users confidently become paying customers, knowing it has the integration they need—which means a lower churn rate for Clearbit.
Add support for your Zapier integration in your help docs, and clinch those leads who may otherwise be on the fence.
Landing pages
Most SaaS apps have a marketplace to show off available integrations. Clearbit dedicates a separate landing page—with a clear call to action—to explain the possibilities in depth.
This page showcases the capabilities of Clearbit's Zapier integration, so anyone searching for a solution can fully understand the benefits. They describe how the integration works to create automated and customized workflows across the Clearbit product, and they provide specific use cases that might be of interest to leads. They also emphasize how easy it is to use the integration—no coding required. By offering all of this information on a comprehensive landing page, Clearbit gives users the knowledge they need to feel confident in paying for Clearbit, thus reducing churn from users who otherwise might not understand the full value proposition.
Create a Zapier landing page on your own site to inform users about the integration and reduce churn in the process.
Product user interface
Clearbit features their Zapier integration within their product so it's easy for existing users to find it and get started right away.
Within the "Getting Started" flow on their website, Clearbit suggests that users take advantage of the Zapier integration. By encouraging existing users to make the most of what Clearbit has to offer by way of its Zapier integration, Clearbit nurtures new customers and reduces churn.
Promote Zapier within your product in order to teach new customers about the benefits and hook long-term users who are looking to automate.
Promoting Zapier throughout your onboarding process and within your product can reduce churn by increasing the value proposition of your product or service and attracting engaged customers. By showing and reminding users that your product or service can be an integral part of all of their workflows, you're increasing the chances that they continue to rely on you as time passes and processes change. Customers are looking for simple automation solutions in all their apps, and as Clearbit has demonstrated, promoting Zapier attracts those customers and reduces churn in the long run.
