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B2B SaaS is high-stakes. So why do so many companies fail to unlock growth, watching their competitors grow faster with a weaker product? With over 30,000 SaaS companies vying for attention, and that number only set to rise, the real question isn't how to compete, but how to be so distinct that your competitors are left wondering how you're always one step ahead. 🚀 I've shared insights on B2B marketing fundamentals, what CEOs seek across different time horizons, and how to forge high-performing teams. Now, let's dive into the unique challenges of B2B SaaS marketing and how to navigate them. Rethink your approach, who's on your team, and what needs to happen to create an inflection point in growth. My experience scaling companies—as a head of marketing, advisory board member, or fractional CMO—has taught me that growth possesses a "muscle memory." Success demands not just iteration but a willingness to place wise bets, driven by data and a unified vision from marketing, sales, and product teams. Key challenges in B2B SaaS growth include: 🧩 1️⃣ Market Saturation: It's not about adding to the noise; it's about changing the frequency. Your strategy should resonate so uniquely with your audience that switching to a competitor feels like a downgrade. 📉➡️📈 2️⃣ Complex Offerings: Simplification is your superpower. The most intricate products need the clearest explanations. It's not dumbing down; it's making your offering accessible and worth the investment. 🧠💡 3️⃣ Customer Conviction: Stop selling; start solving. Transform your product from a 'nice-to-have' to a 'can't-live-without.' Make your customers the heroes of their own stories, with your solution as their trusted sidekick. 🦸♂️🛠️ 4️⃣ Long Sales Cycles? Embrace the marathon. Build relationships through consistent, value-driven communication that keeps you top of mind, from first contact to years of contract renewals. 🔄💼 5️⃣ Complex Decision-Making? Multi-thread your approach. Craft messages that speak to each stakeholder's unique concerns, creating a chorus of "that's right". 🎶👥 6️⃣ Customer Retention: Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is the goal. This comes from not just getting new customers but in keeping them. Develop a unified content strategy that acknowledges the 90% overlap in content across marketing, onboarding, and sales, optimizing for reuse across the buyer’s journey. The secret? It's not just about overcoming these challenges; it's about building a team that sees these challenges as opportunities. 🌟 It's about fostering a culture where well-placed bets are celebrated, where every team member is driven not by fear of failure but by the excitement of what's possible. 🚀 So, why do so many B2B companies end up with uninspired marketing and sales narratives - that all sound pretty much the same? Before I share my perspective, I'm eager to hear yours. What's your take? Let’s scale together! #b2b #B2BSaaS #Innovation #MarketingStrategy #LetsScaleTogether

Dev Basu, a notable figure in B2B SaaS marketing, recently shared some blunt realities about how reviews impact our industry. He believes that many companies, especially startups, have a complicated relationship with review sites. They know these platforms can drive leads but often feel overwhelmed by them. Instead of focusing on gaining endless reviews, what if the focus shifted to understanding the intel these platforms provide? What could you uncover about your competitors that could refine your own positioning in the market? This isn’t just another piece of marketing fluff. It’s about leveraging insights to actually drive growth. If you’re in the game, think about this: would you choose to prioritize building your own reviews or invest your efforts into dissecting what others are doing successfully? Share your thoughts below. https://lnkd.in/ejC2af66

Why do over 95% of SaaS products fail to achieve success? 🤔 Not because they lack creativity but rather because their go-to-market (GTM) strategy is more of a secondary approach than a primary one. 👎 There are a few things that could completely ruin your GTM (go-to-market) strategy 👇 👉Ignoring the customer. Since they are the reason your product exists, your consumers should be the primary consideration in your decision-making. Your go-to-market plan should be customer-focused in every way. 👉Not understanding how different segments of your customers use your product. Recognize the various ways that distinct consumer segments utilize your product and the tasks that they require it to accomplish. You may use this data to help you develop more relevant and focused marketing and sales tactics that appeal to each demographic. 👉Using too many marketing strategies. Instead, concentrate on tactics that successfully reach your target demographic and align with your brand. Here, the motto should be "quality over quantity." 👉Targeting many markets at once.  Setting priorities is essential. Pick a few marketing tactics that best suit your objectives and target audience, then put them into practice. 👉Approaching businesses without a purpose, network, or strategy. Before you knock on their doors, make sure you have a strong enterprise strategy supported by compelling case studies or pilot results. 👉Not checking if your product actually solves a problem. To determine whether your solution truly solves an issue, use MVPs, beta testing, or direct consumer feedback. In the realm of business, nothing is more devastating than a well-executed product launch that no one wants. Do you need help developing a go-to-market strategy for SaaS? 👀 Read more: https://lnkd.in/dzq3cCkq #GTM #b2bsaas

🌟 Just finished reading an eye-opening article on GTM Strategy for B2B SaaS companies! 🚀 Did you know that only 55% of product launches are on schedule? That's like waiting months for a delayed flight! 🔍 Dive deep into the world of Go-To-Market strategies where late launches and poor execution leave SaaS companies losing out on recurring revenue. It’s a common tale in the B2B SaaS world, where aligning marketing, sales, and product goals can make or break a product's success. 📊 Learn about the essential components of a GTM strategy: from defining your growth strategy and identifying your target audience to setting revenue goals, positioning your product, and establishing metrics for success. It's a roadmap to a successful product launch! 🚀 Looking to launch a successful B2B SaaS product? Explore how GTM strategies play a pivotal role in bringing your product to market effectively. Discover the no-BS guide to developing your own unique go-to-market strategy. Make sure your product gets the attention it deserves! 👩💼 Are you ready to navigate the complex world of SaaS GTM strategies like a pro? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Let's engage and learn from each other’s insights. The world of B2B SaaS is full of surprises, just like a box of chocolates... but with better ROI! https://lnkd.in/dzq3cCkq

Can B2B SaaS Companies Use A/B Testing to Determine If Their Marketing Efforts Are Driving Incremental Revenue? If you've spent more than five minutes on LinkedIn, you're likely aware that many people (myself included) are discussing incremental revenue and the importance of testing. To gauge the true effectiveness of our marketing efforts, we need to determine if they are generating incremental revenue—this is the revenue we earn above and beyond what we would have generated without implementing a specific change. Incremental revenue sounds promising; we all want to know if changes to our website, advertising campaigns, or messaging updates have added to our revenue. But how can we be sure? Attribution data can be inaccurate and fails to show whether the revenue would have occurred without the implemented changes. So, what's the solution? Testing is essential, but it comes with prerequisites that must be met to achieve significance. Even once significance is achieved, there are additional challenges that need addressing to truly understand the impact of a change on revenue. In the presentation below, I won't cover all the nuances associated with testing but will highlight some of the challenges that smaller B2B SaaS companies face due to their audience size. We must recognize that few things in marketing can ever be "proven", even through testing, but we do need a clear understanding of the evidence and its implications. So, can B2B SaaS companies use A/B testing to determine if their marketing efforts are driving incremental revenue? For some companies, the answer is yes, but for many smaller B2B SaaS companies, the answer is no. Click through the presentation to discover why this is challenging...

There are no magic levers in B2B SaaS. And investors need to stop asking for them. With DTC, there can be. DadGang Co. for example has insane organic reach with awesome, sharable products—they can keep pulling that lever. But with SaaS, especially high-ticket, it’s a pinball machine of touch points. There’s no levers; it’s an ecosystem. And every part has to be fed. Some parts are less impactful than others. Take SEO, a hot topic in all of marketing. For some B2B SaaS, it works wonders (i.e. Zapier and AirBnB), but for others (like FERMÀT), it’s not a huge focus. It’s being done to feed the ecosystem, but it’s not a singular driver. In B2B SaaS, as your business shifts, different parts of the ecosystem become more or less important. Once you gain awareness, your next goal is to bring prospects down the funnel. That’s where we’re at. We’re pushing them down the main 3 stages of the funnel: 1. Problem aware 2. Solution aware 3. Product aware Why? Since we don’t have the typical help of paid media, this is our way of trust dripping with the customer to help them rationalize why they’re investing in us. Do you think there are levers in B2B SaaS? Drop your thoughts below.

The B2B SaaS Playbook: How to build a predictable, profitable customer acquisition machine The B2B SaaS world has it rough: ❌ It’s hard to get good marketing talent (that know what they’re doing) ❌ There’s so many ways to do outbound marketing (no, a good product won’t carry your marketing efforts) ❌ The lack of autonomous marketing assets makes it impossible to scale WITHOUT hiring out a marketing department (and doing sales non-stop) Yet is that really the case? I’d say no. After extensively talking and working with 50+ SaaSes, I developed a system that: ✅ Is optimised to convert (regardless the type of traffic) ✅ Is completely autonomous (so that you don’t have overhead to operate it) ✅ And is based on the best data-driven marketing elements out there (so it’s not just random woo-woo) So here’s a brief overview of the Lean SaaS Lead System: 1. The lead lands on the optimised website Here, the website has what I call a hyper-optimised SaaS page. It follows a strict structure that: • Makes the lead follow a story • That sets the right «authority» frame • And shows the value of your product in a way that outshines your market Then… 2. The lead decides how to consume the information Some people like reading, some people like watching video content. That’s why it’s important to have a Video Sales Letter (VSL) that: • Takes the lead on an even more personal journey • That spurs emotions and shows what they truly care about • So that they have a definite buying intent… in a way only the 1% of marketers can achieve (VSL scripting is an art in itself)... ...Yet not every person will get a trial or book a demo call, that’s perfectly normal. For those that need a bit of time to think and consider there’s the following… 3. A segmented sales funnel with a lead magnet opt-in Sometimes leads need a bit of time and extra information to commit. That’s exactly what the funnel does: • It entices them to leave their contact details to get a valuable resource (like a thorough case study) • Then they get to know more about the product and its benefits throughout the funnel • So that you get the most out of the traffic the landing page receives (no more bounces and low conversions!) And that’s not all… 4. Sales development sequences These are needed to assure 2 things: • That the lead actually gets on a demo call (to increase your show rate) • Or that the lead becomes a paying user With these conversion mechanisms installed (I’ll talk about VSLs, case studies and other elements in more detail later, as that’s a whole separate universe), you can effectively get customers on autopilot at a modest Cost per Lead (CPL) and Cost per Acquisition (CPA). --- P.S: Want to know how to acquire more B2B SaaS customers for less? DM me "SaaS" - Ilian

At its simplest, customer insights/market research is about finding revenue and/or profitability opportunities. While there is a very important take away for SaaS businesses in this video, there is a broader point here, that there are opportunities to better understand your customer/the market (often hiding in plain site), whichever industry you're in. However, many organisations are at the mercy of their tech stack and reporting frameworks. Data that is easy to report on is given an outsized level of importance. So it's worth gigging deeper.

Most B2B SaaS treat CAC like a one-dimensional metric: lower is better. This ignores a few realities. Premium segments can demand a premium cost. Your highest-value customers rarely arrive through your cheapest channels. Enterprise deals might cost 10x more to close, but drive 50x more lifetime value. While your "efficient" CAC serves price-sensitive segments. If you chase the lowest CAC you'll end up with a diversified client base. But what happens if you decide to niche for a long-term strategic advantage? Acquiring customers in your target niche may cost more than the efficient alternative, so you sabotage your long-term game plan by hyper-focusing on the lowest CAC. Early-stage companies face a counter-intuitive truth with CAC: Higher initial CAC is often the price of market positioning. You're not just acquiring customers; you're buying market position. Early stage typically spend 3-5x annual recurring revenue on customer acquisition. It's more costly to carve out said position than people initially think. The real question is: which market do you want to own? Not: how are you constantly reducing your cost of acquiring new customers. Regardless, it is best not to use CAC alone without its counterpart life-time value (LTV). It's helpful for resource allocation. Say Google ads drives lower CAC than Meta, you think 'we'll spend more there'. But if you then find out Meta delivers higher LTV, that flips the decision. Make sure you're optimising for value, not vanity metrics. Marketing is a balancing game between going broad enough to be top of mind but not too broad to squander your limited budget on irrelevant eyeballs. p.s. I go deeper on marketing insights for SaaS CEOs in my newsletter. Link in bio.

It's worth being pedantic to say that B2B extends far wider than just SaaS, especially when it comes to marketing advice. For as long as there's been marketing debate, the B2B vs B2C comparison has been a standard go to. And, as a generalization, there's usually plenty of truth between the two, especially when it comes to creativity and personality. But when it comes to marketing strategy, even core beliefs, the SaaS industry is an outlier in many ways - especially when it comes to marketing fundamentals and brand. For all that B2B finds itself as the less shiny marketing sibling, on the whole B2B is well versed in 4P strategies, as well as the importance of brand awareness and reputation. In fact, in many ways it understands reputation to a deeper level because of the nature of B2B. Tech has, without doubt, found itself as a dominant example in recent years of great B2B marketing, but it is anything but representative of B2B as as whole, with companies like Siemens, GE, Pfizer, etc being world-class marketing organizations. And, importantly, SaaS is not even representative of B2B tech as a whole, either. The reason it's worth being pedantic is because LinkedIn is increasingly filled with popular advice on B2B that really only applies to SaaS, often early stage SaaS, but it's being positioned as the advice everyone must take. At the same time, early stage SaaS companies are relying on benchmark data and survey insights catered to much larger tech organizations that are entirely unrepresentative of their reality. When advice becomes generalized to B2B, it becomes entirely unhelpful, and even higher risk than no advice at all. Generalizing makes for better content performance metrics, but usually comes at the expense of its reader value. B2B isn't a monolith, and it helps our credibility and our content value when we bring more specificity to how we talk.