In the age of cut-throat competition, all the business to business sales follow a generic pattern of sermonizing their brand. They have a product that can simplify the tasks at their customers’ end, but do they have to go overboard in pushing the message. The solution to this perennial problem lies in understanding the customer requirement and breaking the clutter to make a mark in an already overcrowded space.
The world of SaaS has become more competitive with many players vying for their share of the customer’s wallet. The challenge here is to pick on the right positioning and be consistent in your messaging. When it comes to CRM, Email Marketing or Marketing Automation software, the competition becomes a close-knitted fare with everyone unleashing their bundle of features to keep themselves abreast with the market dynamics. If you quickly turn to the Google Adwords platform to buy keywords such as ‘marketing automation software’, they can cost you close to $25 per click. So, the quest is on to find other alternatives.
A quick chat with your customers can get you do the right things. If your target group is small and medium businesses, utmost care has to put on gathering user voice. Most of them may not be happy with the behemoths in that space and could be looking for lightweight CRM and Marketing Automation tools that offer value for their money. Also they may not use all the features bundled with an automation tool. It’s time to stay away from your typical tagline for a B2B company and come closer to your customer.
Keep the tagline simple and more customer-friendly. This honest approach will get you more trial sign-ups than those of overblown ones offering instant results. Something like ‘Understanding the needs of small businesses’, ‘Built with love for small business’ will instantly click with your prospective buyers.
Don’t worry about your team size and marketing efforts you’re putting in to increase your revenue. Even in the competitive space of SaaS, you can make the cut to emerge as a David pitted against Goliaths of CRM and Marketing Automation. That’s not all. You can scale up greater heights without any outside funding. Bootstrapping can be a key to your success.
A small change in your approach by striking honest and informal conversations with your customers will help you take a big leap in the SaaS market.
Here are few tips for the small B2B players that aid them to sail through any competitive waters. Don’t worry David is bound to take over Goliath.
Concision is the key, but play this card wisely
If you’re designing the homepage of your website or landing pages for your software, the norm is to keep the message concise with only the relevant information. This gets you more signups from the busy bees who are looking at crisp content that straightly hits the core. Something like Bitly does with its simplistic message “Shorten.Share.Measure”. The note sharing app, Evernote, also takes the same route to “Remember Everything”.
But don’t the lost in the stream of ‘short sells like hot cakes’. If your message needs more words, go for it. Sometimes, you have to think beyond conventional wisdom to help your leads understand how you are different from others, and it may take few paragraphs to put across your value proposition.
Don’t forget to run A/B testing to test whether long-form product pages work for your product or not. Optimize your website with easy to use testing tools such as Optimizely and VWO. Give your content writers a free hand to explain the product in detail and see how this version performs the test. More often, if a prospect is really interested to buy your product, the long or short of messaging won’t kill the intent.
Know what your customer has to say about you
When in doubt embrace tools such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey to collect feedback and information related to survey.
A quick question to start-off the process can be “What was so interesting / surprising about using our product?”
This seemingly simple question will get your marketing activity rolling.
At times, you tend to overlook promoting couple of features, but your customers feel them to be surprising offerings. This activity helps you to note down all of them and follow-up with enhancements as a mark of listening to your customers that translates into effective customer engagement. Next time, you will ensure to add this feature in your collaterals – white papers, case studies, brochures and others.
A common practice is to compile the product testimonials from all the channels and host them on your website. It doesn’t stop there. A little tweak to their written feedback can transcend into a hard-hitting blog headline.
Stick to your core areas
Don’t make any false claims to your customers. This will tarnish your brand image in the long run. If you are in the business of CRM and Marketing Automation, float your message around the key features of your product, but not on all the possible areas it can venture in the future. Being innovative and futuristic in your approach is a good approach, but, in this process, don’t make far-fetched statements that may put your in a fix. Tell your customers about any hidden costs and ensure that transparency is maintained across all the stages of the customer life cycle. The message is clear. Surface your core competence and stick to it.
With your market, ponder the drawbacks that make clients come to your from your competitors for a plausible solution. Speak to them and get to know their likes and dislikes about their situation and how effectively you can offer them better solutions. Now, if you are unsure about your USP, then it’s time to think beyond the ordinary and ganer few more insights.
Getting your message straight can be hard at times. Businesses have to step into the customer’s shoes for better engagement. Show them how you are different and how can you make a change in their lives with your quality offerings. After a thorough analysis of what they like to read and how they want the communication to be, align your content strategy accordingly. A happy customer can keep the magical word-of-mouth flowing around. And nothing can beat this best marketing activity that works wonder for you SaaS product.
