Designing SaaS Pricing Pages that Convert

December 7, 2021

When potential customers are gauging the value of your software, one of the first things they will consider is the price of what you are offering.

While your product is an integral part of the consideration, budgetary constraints and financial decision-making govern much of the buying decision process. One solution that many SaaS businesses opt for is creating effective pricing pages that lead potential buyers to make a more informed decision.

In short, pricing pages are the landing pages that companies display to show their subscription plan or one-time payment cost.

Typically, a customer will have to click on a tab like "see cost" or something similar to see all of the information available on a pricing page.

Since most SaaS companies provide different subscriptions or prices for access to their products, these pages are generally segmented into different sections that display the pricing options. They’ll often run through the key features of the various products the user is looking to purchase.

A pricing page is a valuable part of a marketing strategy, and for it to be effective, it should provide critical information to users that help convert leads to sales. They are also more comprehensive than just having a list of the different services available with details on price. They can have other components that drive engagement and inform leads, such as FAQs, demo offerings, and more.

Like other forms of marketing, there are different conversion strategies that businesses can employ to try to turn interest into actual sales. Not all pricing pages have the same success; there are several methods that companies utilize to drive better results that some businesses may be unaware of. Let's look at some of the ways to create SaaS pricing pages that will draw in new customers and spur growth. 

 

Connect Pricing Tiers to Different Buyer Personas

The goal of marketing is to connect with your ideal customer in a way that drives them to purchase your product. One essential step in this process is knowing who your ideal customers are and then tailoring your efforts towards that specific group. Creating buyer personas will help give you better insight into the people you are targeting, particularly if you’re a B2B SaaS company. Connecting each pricing tier to a specific buyer persona will personalize your page and improve your conversion rate.

According to Startup Bonsai, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience, with 66% of consumers expecting brands to understand their needs. Buyer personas identify the type of consumer that makes for a good fit for your product or service, including job role, budget, and more. 

Each pricing tier should appeal to a different buyer persona; this will create a more personalized user experience. Your pricing tiers are the varying monthly or yearly subscriptions on offer with different tiers for different key features.

The prices and descriptions should be written to address buyer pain points. A successful pricing page will have each of its pricing tiers targeted towards a different potential customer. Whether it is another industry, different company size, or different applications, each pricing tier should reach a specific buyer persona.

 

Make a More Comprehensive Experience for Users

Many businesses think a pricing page should just display the pricing options in a slickly designed layout, but if you want to provide the best customer experience, it should be more extensive than that.

The typical page will feature pricing tables that show pricing tiers and the list of features for the different subscriptions offered. This layout is standard practice, but adding to it makes for a more substantial page that could lead to more conversions.

One useful way people can add to their pricing pages is with an automated chatbot that answers questions prospective customers might have. Chatbots are a fast-growing form of customer communication.

Implementing one of these features to your pricing page will expand the experience by allowing for more questions around your pricing.

According to Comm100, Chatbots are also highly effective with an average satisfaction rate of 88%.

Other ways to create a more engaging and substantial experience are through an FAQ page or an explainer video. These will add necessary context and help you further explain key pricing details to make the customer decision as easy as possible. Adding content to your pricing page increases the time leads will spend on the page, provides more information about your pricing, and leads to more confident users and decision-makers.

 

Limit the Available Options

Pricing pages are meant to be easily digestible. The goal is to communicate your subscription model in a simple way. A trap that some companies fall into is getting unnecessarily intricate with their pricing plans on their page. Pricing for a complex product like software can be complicated, with a variety of pricing options available.

However, limiting the number of options on your pricing plan will lead to a higher number of conversions.

The optimum number for a pricing model is three, with more results having a negative effect on customer interest. CXL provided an example of this pricing page design principle in action with Ring Central that had a page with four subscription plans and a page with three plans.

They tested both out equally, and the three-option pricing plan increased conversions by more than 37%. Customers want simplicity, and it is imperative you accommodate that.

That doesn't mean you have to change your business model if you have various pricing models. You can dedicate one of the options to a “Contact Us” tab, which can explain that some of the subscriptions can be customized or changed.

Overall, the main takeaway should be that less is more. Most SaaS companies have different pricing plans, but limiting the number to three primary options on the pricing page will stop you from losing customers to decision fatigue.

 

Switch up the Order of Your Pricing

In marketing, when showing the cost of an annual subscription, standard business practices say that the cheapest cost should be on the left, and the prices should go in ascending order to the right. Just because something is a standard business practice doesn't mean it is the best way to do things.

By switching the order you display your prices, you may subtly influence consumers' decisions, leading to a higher number of people opting for the more expensive subscriptions. This practice is known as price anchoring.

Price anchoring plays on the human tendency to seek value. An example of this would be if a car salesman showed three cars. The first one was $75,000, the next was $50,000, and the last was $30,000.

It is more likely that people’s idea of what is affordable will be impacted by this, as they will see the $30,000 option as cheap even if it may have been out of their budget before. This principle was confirmed in a CXL study that tested this practice with pricing pages and showed that the more expensive options were purchased more when shown left to right.

Price anchoring must work within reason, of course, as it doesn’t magically change people’s concept of a fair value. It is still a valuable tool that uses human psychology to transform the customer journey in a way that works for your business.

Something as small as rearranging the way your prices are listed can have a tangible impact on your overall conversion optimization.

 

Utilize Color Psychology in Design Principles

Taking marketing influence from psychology is a crucial way to use human behavioral tendencies to your advantage.

Our brains are wired to respond to certain stimuli, and playing off these inherent responses can lead to a higher converting pricing page. One component of your pricing page that should have a psychological basis is your color choices.

Colors impact consumer impressions and behaviors, so using the right ones in your pricing page design can help set the desired feeling. The impact colors have on behavior is known as color psychology.

Color psychology is an imperfect science, as it is influenced by the unique backgrounds and lives of the people perceiving the colors.

However, there is a broader connection between specific colors and certain feelings. Implementing the colors that have the feeling you want to inspire into your color scheme could lead to more substantial results.

According to Sitepoint, colors like blue inspire trust and responsibility. Bold colors like red inspire energy and attention, while black gives the look of prestige and power.

Your pricing page is meant to be punchy and eye-catching and call attention to certain areas. Aspects of the page such as background color, button color, and font are all very important. Utilizing color psychology in the design of your page will help you create desired feelings in consumers while also having a better-looking page, which could lead to people staying longer on your page.

 

Have a Strong Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) is the finishing touch on your pricing page, so make sure it is memorable and effective. A CTA is what everything builds towards, and you need to deliver it prominently and memorably. This is more than just for wording, although that is important.

Your CTA needs to stand out from a design perspective as well. It has to look good and be written in a way that makes it pop off the screen, and there are several different ways you could go about creating a strong call to action.

Phrasing your CTA has an impact on the results you will achieve. According to HubSpot’s Lead Generation research, certain words will generate more clicks while others cause click percentages to fall. “Click here” had a 33% click rate while “Submit” had a 20% rate, and “Register” had 10%.

Implementing this phrasing into your CTA shouldn’t be difficult, but don’t lose sight of the importance of design as well. Your CTA should stand out from the rest of the pricing plan, with a different color, font, or other design element surrounding it.

A call to action spurs your prospective customer into the desired result. On a pricing page, that desired result is purchasing the product or contacting your business, as it is more of a bottom of the funnel part of your sales process.

Making sure your call to action sticks out from the page and has actionable and definitive phrasing that is clear, concise, and exciting will lead to a higher click percentage.

 

Ready to Turn Your Pricing Pages into High-Conversion Machines?

Pricing pages are a tool that displays a key component of your business to prospective customers. Your pricing strategy is one of the most important parts of your operation, and your pricing plan should present that strategy to different types of customers in an appealing way.

Like all aspects of your website, you should put a lot of thought into your pricing plan's overall look, function, and utility to drive as many conversions as possible.

Pricing pages are not all created equal, and companies need to employ the best possible strategy for this critical part of the customer journey. Some of the most effective ways to design a SaaS pricing page that converts are by personalizing your pricing tiers with the help of customer personas, creating additional content to supplement the page for a more comprehensive experience, and limiting the number of options on the page.

You can also use price anchoring to convert more on your higher-cost offerings, utilize color psychology to inspire certain feelings, and have a strong and actionable CTA that closes the deal.

A pricing page is a valuable tool that succinctly provides essential information to customers about features and costs. Creating a pricing page that consistently converts interest into sales can be done with these crucial insights in mind.



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