7 Must-Have Elements For A Great SaaS Website

Have you ever thought about what it takes to create a website? Well, if you are a designer, then you must probably know that building a website that is not only easy to use but also looks beautiful at the same time takes a lot of effort, time, and resources. The worst part is that sometimes, even after investing so much in the website, visitors disapprove of the website. If you are looking to create a SaaS (Software as a Service) website, you should consider a few elements.

In this post, we will focus on the aspects you need to consider when building your SaaS website.

Value Proposition

By value proposition, we are suggesting you specify all those elements that make your business something more than what others deliver. You need to communicate what you do for the customers and why you are the best among all. Why should they choose you? This is your chance to convince the users within a single sentence. So, follow this principle:

“What you do + why you do it best = value proposition.”

Have a look at a few examples. Salesforce and SendGrid do a very good job of explaining why they are the best. Consider the latter, where the company explains it all in a single sentence. Sendgrid says:

• What do they do: Email delivery
• Why are they the best: It’s simple to use

Build Trust With Social Proof

Nowadays, users don’t just trust what you are saying. Rather, they trust what others say about you. Users are most likely to trust what others say about you. To build credibility among users, include: 

• Customer testimonials
• Case studies
• Client logos
• Third-party reviews

Various SaaS websites highlight real customer success stories to build trust and influence decisions. 

Call to Action

Once you have communicated to users what you do and why you are the best, the next important task is to tell them what action to take next. In most cases, it has been seen that the users respond best to call-to-action buttons. Typically, most of the websites make use of call-to-action buttons to inform the user about where to sign up or sign in. Some perfect examples would be:

HubSpot displays two buttons and one link. The best thing is that all three of them take the visitor to unique areas.

Mailchimp is another example where the company very tactfully makes use of a call to action button in red colour that also specifies ‘Free’ as a value proposition.

Product Experience 

Would you ever buy a product that you have not seen yet? Definitely, not! We expect at least to see a few pictures of the product before planning to buy it. That is why for your SaaS website, you will need to use images of the software that you are selling.

Have a look at Sprout Social; the website lets users see each feature of the product in the best way while accentuating the prime features.

There are chances for people to read your features, while others will prefer simply to focus on how it looks. So, make sure you write about the features and display the image as well.

Design for Conversion (Not Just Looks)

A visually appealing website is important, but in SaaS, performance matters more than aesthetics. Your website should be designed with one primary goal: converting visitors into users or customers.

Modern SaaS websites rely heavily on data-driven design decisions rather than assumptions. This means continuously testing and optimizing different elements to improve performance.

Some key practices include:

• A/B testing different headlines, CTAs, and layouts
• Heatmaps and session recordings to understand user behaviour
• Clear user journeys that guide visitors toward a specific action
• Minimizing friction by reducing unnecessary steps

Companies like HubSpot constantly optimize their pages to improve conversions, ensuring that every element serves a purpose.

Video & Interactive Content

Sometimes images alone are not sufficient to deliver the exact message. That is when you can rely upon videos to convey the message. As an e-commerce store owner, you might be displaying videos to visitors so they can watch them instead of reading text. The task here is to rely upon video hosting services that offer insight into the analytics. This way, you can know how much content the visitor paid attention to.

In most cases, people ignore the factors such as the ideal length for the video and end up posting videos that range up to a few minutes. The visitors usually abandon the video after watching it for a few seconds, so the task is to convey the message within a confined period. The best videos are those that are shot within 30 seconds to one minute. Make sure that the exact message is conveyed within the initial seconds. The video should also include product pictures and text.

Dropbox follows a fantastic strategy where they only use videos to convey the exact message.

Make sure you check out our post on “How videos can increase conversions for e-commerce businesses.” There are some great tips that you can accumulate through this post.

Free Trials

Users love it when a brand offers them the facility to try on their products or services before they purchase them. You can let your customers use the data and test it by offering trials. Most trials run for one to two weeks and do not require any sort of debit or credit card details. 

Netflix is a perfect example of how to offer users a trial before they decide to continue the subscription. It is quite common for all SaaS companies to offer a free trial. Placement of the “Trial” button is another attribute that you should be taking into consideration. 

Building an excellent SaaS website is not just about design but is about creating an experience that informs, builds trust, and drives action.