Getting your SaaS in front of prospective customer is hard! And finding the ideal customers is even harder.
Have you considered adding your SaaS to App Stores or Marketplaces from existing established SaaS platforms which your prospective customers already use?
Shopify has over 1,000,000 businesses using their platform and 87% of these businesses have installed an app from the appstore with the average business using 6 Apps.
And that is just one appstore! This is a huge opportunity.
What is an App Store or Marketplace
When you think of an App Store you probably think of the ITunes App Store or the Google Play Store for mobile apps.
But did you know there are hundreds of app stores and marketplaces where you can list your software and gain access to thousands of new prospects and generate new revenue.
Some of these marketplaces are from other products that your ideal customers use every day.
A SaaS Marketplace or App Store is usually run by larger organisations with a large established customer base that you can target.
Marketplaces usually consist of a place where users of the product can search for apps and each app has a landing page where they can read more about the app to start a trial or purchase. The marketplace may be a seperate area or subdomain on the main website or incorporated into the user interface of the product to make app discovery even more seamless.
Quite often a marketplace will require an integration with their platform. When considering a marketplace you should decide how your product can extend the capabilities of the platform and choose the platforms where your product can provide the most benefit.
Why list on SaaS App Stores and Marketplaces
Get found by your ideal customer
Choosing the right app store will get you seen by businesses that are more likely to be your ideal customer. If you already know they are using a platform you can tell a lot about the type of business they are. You can also tell they are more serious than the average business as they are actively looking in the app store for software to help solve a problem. If they are looking for a solution you provide you have a very targeted prospect.
Make your product extra sticky
Once a business has integrated your SaaS in another platform it makes your product more valuable to them. It also makes it harder to stop using your product as it may mean something in the other platform needs to be changed or will stop working.
Once your product becomes part of the workflow of the platform your clients are more likely to continue using your software.
More business by Association
Some businesses processes are built around certain products (eg. SalesForce). These businesses will only be interested in other software that integrates into the SalesForce platform. By being integrated with these platforms and being discoverable in their marketplaces you are far more likely to be chosen by these businesses over your competitors who are not integrated.
Co-marketing Opportunities
Many of the marketplaces offer co-marketing opportunities. Imagine having your software mentioned in a newsletter that goes to millions of business owners. When you listing goes live on the app store it may be featured for a period of tine, this can be a great way to get your SaaS in front of thousands of businesses.
Additional Revenue Streams
The obvious one. Marketplaces can be a great source of additional revenue. This marketplaces will bill for you and provide a monthly revenue stream that grows as their platform grows.
You benefit from their marketing
The companies that run marketplaces spend millions on adverting every year for their own software. Being listed on their app store means that you get increased exposure for nothing. As these platforms grow they bring in more users who are likely to use their marketplaces and discover your SaaS.
Development can be outsourced
Most marketplaces will require some level of development to integrate your SaaS to their platform. The good news is this can be done by outsourced developers who specialise in integrating specific platforms. You don’t need to switch the focus of your core development team, especially if you already have an API. Even if your core developers have to become involved it will most likely only need to be for the first integration as other integrations will be similar.
Top SaaS App Stores
These are some of the best App Stores and Marketplaces for a SaaS but there are hundreds of others. If you know of software platforms not listed here that your ideal customer uses then focus on those platforms first. Do a google search for that platform and “app store” or “marketplace” or check their website.
Shopify App Store
WooCommerce Marketplace
Square App Marketplace
Wix App Market
Zoho Marketplace
Salesforce AppExchange
Weebly App Center
Slack App Directory
Zapier App Directory
Atlassian Marketplace
Google Workspace Marketplace
Chrome Web Store
InfusionSoft Marketplace
Github Marketplace
Quickbooks Apps
Zendesk Apps
Constant Contact Marketplace
Mindbody Partner Store
At myPresences we have the worlds only free tool to search these App Stores and Marketplaces to show where you are listed and your ratings and reviews on each.
Try a scan for your software product https://www.mypresences.com/scan/appstore/
myPresences is the only platform where you can manage and grow the presence and reputation of your Software Company on over 50 websites important to Software Companies.
To see all the Software App Stores and Marketplaces you can list on and where you are currently listed go to the Services page in myPresences and select Software App Stores in the service dropdown.
Try us free for 14 days for your software company to see more.
