Want to expand the reach of your product? Here's how third-party software integrations can help.

The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.

Your product is the main selling point of your business, but it doesn't have to be the only feature. In fact, when companies open their products to integrations with third-party software, they open up a whole world of possibilities. In the years since the release of our flagship product, the Smart Video Intercom, the ButterflyMX team and I have made a special effort to expand our reach by integrating our software with third-party products.

For example, this year alone we have partnered with RemoteLock so that our unified access control solutions now connect to over 80 smart locks to seamlessly provide access to buildings and apartments from our mobile app. This has greatly expanded our product capabilities without the time, energy and financial investment required to launch an entirely new product, which has helped grow our business significantly.

If you're running a startup looking to expand the reach of your product, consider integrating it with other software.

Related: Challenges Enterprises Face in Software Integration

What are the benefits of integrating your product with other software?

No matter what product or service you offer, by integrating with other software, you combine various platforms into one unified software architecture. And by creating a large integrated system, you increase functionality and convenience for consumers.

In addition, integrating your product with other software extends the capabilities of your product without the need to develop new products. Software integrations allow you to advance and expand your product faster as you expand its capabilities exponentially. Software integrations also provide an easy way to advance professional relationships with other companies in the industry.

Why are partnerships important?

When you're building a business from scratch, you have to develop partnerships. Across industries, leading companies offer multiple integrations. In fact, the average SaaS (software as a service) company has 15 integrations. However, some SaaS companies offer over 500 integrations. By partnering with another company in your sector, you participate in its growth. Then, when their product succeeds, so does yours, and vice versa.

One of the biggest benefits of establishing integration partners is improving business growth by expanding your user base. Not only are you giving your customers a new tool or feature – leading to better customer retention – you are also opening your business up to a whole new customer base. With a partnership in place, you can expand your customer base and easily add new users.

Overall, developing deep business partnerships and software integrations will grow your business in the short and long term. In fact, you can think of new integrations as a new sales channel. You add your products and services to a whole new market.

Because your software integrations should be with companies in your industry or a related industry, you'll be selling to new customers with a similar customer profile. This means that your product will inherently meet their needs.

How to approach partnerships as a startup

So you've decided it's time to grow your business by enabling third-party software integration. But how do you find worthy partners? First, you need to find companies whose customers match your ICP, or ideal customer profile. An ideal customer profile is a detailed overview of your company's ideal customer. KPI is used to adjust marketing and lead generation tactics.

By working with companies whose KPI matches yours, you increase the likelihood that their customers...