I was looking at Mamut, a company recently acquired by one of my clients. Mamut offers installed/on-premise software. So I was surprised to see a message asking visitors to test drive the software on the browser.

I filled out the lead capture from to see they were using Runaware, a citrix-based platform. With this, you can view an instance of Mamut’s desktop client. That’s a pretty cool service. You get to view a full-fledged working copy of a complex system within 30 seconds.

From a lead-generation point of view, this can be an effective way to capture leads who prefer an hands-on approach. Runaware also captures analytics so that you can see what features your lead spent time on. Pretty neat!

I often get asked about how to increase conversions for a SaaS funnel. These are some pointers I share with my clients:

Audience Targeting

Think who is most likely to find your service valuable? Consider their job functions, roles at work and issues that you solve.

Simple marketing

Now get in their shoes and articulate the message that will hook them to your service.

Incentive to Use

Remember, there has to be an inherent reason for people to use your service. You can dangle a carrot (e.g. win a free iPad). But the real motivation must be obvious at first glance.

Less Clicks

Don’t just keep the message simple, but also the interface. The less the number of clicks/keystrokes the better.

Easiest Signup

Reduce number of steps to a bare minimum. Do you really need email acknowledgement?

Try before you buy

This is the norm for SaaS tools, but I’ve seen a lot of services still ask for credit card numbers. Are you serious? Let your visitor see what you’ve spent months creating… why give them a reason to close the browser?

Simple tour

Once they are in, make sure you give them enough pointers to actually use your web app. About 80% of your signups are just one times. So this is your only chance to convince them to see how you are the next best thing since sliced bread.

Deliver Value

Think of how to deliver the most value to your visitor without any hassle. Once they start to see the value, you’ll get better conversions, sign ups and retention rates.

I’m always trying to keep track of time… but never seem to be too good at it. There are many tools to help, and one such tool is Yast. What’s so unique about Yast, that I decide to blog about it? Well simple reason, its so easy that people will actually use it.

It has a clean web-interface that leaves out bulky bells and whistles. But what got me really excited was the iPhone app. It’s a single click app, that tracks your time for multiple projects. At the end of the billing cycle you can tally up your billable hours to invoice your clients.

The free version is limited to a single user, and has other restrictions. The paid version is 4 euros/month/user and offers a few more advanced features. I’d recommend this tool for professional services that need a simple time tracking app.