The fast-moving digital world has seen how the global SaaS market built a strong foundation and continuous to flourish. With its steady growth, statistics reveal that there is a projected total value of $623.3 billion by the year 2023 in this sector.
The retail and consumer goods industries lead the way in adopting SaaS software with many global companies following suit. Software products are so rampant today that consumers are given plenty of choices for the best app to use for a specific purpose. For example, it can be overwhelming to choose between Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber since they are all intended for video, text, and voice communications.
This goes to show how it can be pretty competitive in the SaaS industry. As a startup SaaS company, achieving an effective brand marketing is the biggest hurdle to overcome. The market is so huge that it can be taxing to ensure enough exposure.
Branding is never an easy task so here’s a simple guide that you can use to create a brand identity that is impactful to your customers.
But first, What is brand marketing?
The process of creating a unique identity, whether through visual means or your communication skills is called brand marketing.
In a sea of competing brands, customers no longer base their loyalty on the price tag alone. Consumers are becoming more stringent when it comes to determining which brands deserve their attention. More often than not, a company’s identity and vision are vital in making sound choices between brands.
It is essential, therefore, that you are able to create a focal point for your company where customers are able to see the brand in a good light. It is your job to find a strategic angle to ensure that your brand can represent not only your identity but also the heart and soul of the brand.
Through an effective brand marketing strategy, you can create a strong differentiator that will let the audience see your strengths even alongside competitors.
Actionable Strategies for Effective SaaS Brand Marketing
It can be a bit overwhelming to keep your creativity and patience up when trying to make your brand known. Here are some actionable strategies that will make your SaaS marketing efforts effective and efficient at the same time.
1. Don’t Try to Please Everyone.
Even with all the vital resources at your disposal, it is simply not possible to meet the needs of different kinds of consumers. Start small and start profiling the audience to identify which crowd has the most interest in your brand. Concentrate on that ideal market segment and understand their needs, preferences, buying power, social status, etc. You will be surprised by the amount of information you can use in creating unique targeted marking strategies that is engaging for this particular group.
2. Set a Good Impression with Your Image.
First impression truly lasts which is why the best image should be presented to your buying public. While going over the top in marketing your brand is tempting, you also risk being dishonest. Rule of thumb is to keep it grand but keep it real. Customers are loyal when they find a brand to be promising and reputable.
3. Create Content About Your Business.
Whether it be in a blog dedicated to your brand or on any of your social media accounts, you must be able to effectively send out word about your business. Provide valuable content in order to establish authority in your field. Interact with the audience to forge relationships. Find out how to get your brand known quicker such as guest blogging, having paid ads, or using influencers. Above all, be relevant. Research about what topics interest your target readers the most to keep them engaged.
4. Build Connections.
The power of association works well in SaaS branding. Find out how you can get your brand be mentioned with other brands on their websites, blogs, and social media pages. Start low with your friends, families, colleagues, and fellow start-ups. Maybe they too have connections to bigger brands both outside and inside your industry.
5. Be Consistent.
Successful brand marketing does not happen overnight. You will have to do all of these strategies over and over to make your brand memorable to the audience. Being consistent also means staying within the goals and visions that you have set for your company. This is to avoid causing confusion when promoting a message or values that you foster in your business.
6. Keep Your Brand Fresh.
Finally, when you are able to make your brand memorable, what needs to be done is to keep the interest up among your customers. Remember that the audience has changing preferences too so it would do you well to remember that branding is a continuous process. Keep tabs on the success rate of your strategies to see where you can improve and which ones got the most attention. This will allow you to identify the elements that work positively on your favor. More than that, you can also see the issues that seem to deteriorate your brand image.
Visual Impact/Recognition
How you are seen by the audience matters greatly in building your brand. Because you are aiming to please a specific group of people, you must be particularly careful on crafting your brand image. In a highly saturated market, you need to go strong with your campaigns so you can have the most impact. You can do this in three simple ways:
1. Invest on Creativity. A unique and simple design tends to be more memorable than elaborate ones. Pair it up with a creative presentation and you will have an extraordinary SaaS marketing strategy at your disposal. Going outside-of-the-box ideas into your campaigns will help you thrive in this highly competitive market.
2. Use the Power of Social Media. It will be such a shame to have the perfect campaigns but not knowing where to post them, right? Almost anyone who has access to the internet uses social media. It is considered to be one of the best platforms to be seen and heard, both for people and brands. Even small brands are able to find opportunities to create connections with their target customers through social media. Bigger companies, on the other hand, are smart enough to know that the old ways (i.e. paid media coverage, phone calls, email marketing, etc) are not enough and publishing on social media delivers more favorable results. It is therefore necessary for you to study which platforms will work best with your brand. Social media can be your means to get the word out about your company.
3. Rebranding. Like any other human beings, consumers tend to develop different tastes and preferences. They may want to try out new things. Knowing this, you should know when to spice things up with your brand. You can tweak your branding strategies to go with the trends. This will ensure relevance and can also impress your existing customers because of your flexibility.
While it can be fun to be spontaneous, the existing customers might be upset and will be driven away from your brand. When doing a rebrand, avoid being tempted at doing a complete overhaul overnight. Tread on the process carefully and calculate the reaction of your audience.
Benefits of Branding
Building a positive brand is critical to your growth as a company. Your brand strength and awareness are the top elements that would catapult your business to the next level. So why should you consider branding your brand? Here are top five benefits that you can enjoy from a successful branding:
1. It Promotes Recognition. Consumers are keen to buy familiar things. Being consistent with your branding efforts will make your marketing effective because it will make the brand easier to recognize. With recognition, people will be more comfortable to purchase from you.
2. It Sets You Apart from the Competition. It can be pretty difficult to compete in a global market. Many companies are tempted to create the same type of marketing strategies because they think it will be more effective. The truth is that customers like choices and alternatives. Stand out from the crowd by having a specific image that your target audience can recognize. Being unique can arouse their interest and will choose you over other brands.
3. It Lets the Audience Know What to Expect. Being consistent on your branding puts the customers at ease. It makes them comfortable to know about the ideals that you are trying to show up front. Disney, for example, is clear about being a family- oriented brand. From the simplicity of its logo down to the use of pleasant colors, you can see that they are able to create a consistent branding that the audience recognize and have come to love.
4. It Helps You to Stay Focused. With the changing trends, you may get tempted to jump from one idea to the other. It sounds fun but can be too overwhelming for the audience. A clear branding strategy will guide you towards achieving your goals because you are able to focus all efforts, energy, and resources on a particular marketing strategy.
5. It Lets You Connect with the Audience. Customers find purchasing as an emotional experience. Keep it a positive one by creating a brand that they can relate to. Branding allows you to do this since you are keeping their mind at ease when they become familiar with your brand.
If you are able to brand your company right, you will be able to communicate a lasting impression that will make the customers happy and comfortable with your brand.
SaaS Branding Common Mistakes
While there are plenty of strategies you can use to start with SaaS branding, there are also a lot of common mistakes that can derail you from achieving success. The top five of these errors are as follows:
1. Not Defining a Clear Brand Strategy First. A brand strategy lets you identify objectives and understand the competition. It gives you a sense of direction in achieving your company goals. By not defining a clear strategy, you risk not aligning your efforts towards the goal and may also not be able to connect with the audience.
2. Inconsistent Brand Identity. To create a sense of familiarity, you must be consistent with all the elements concerning your brand. Use the same logo, font, colors, etc. that are associated with your brand. Having different ones will only lead to confusion and failure to make an imprint on the customers’ minds.
3. Poor Visuals. The use of visuals in branding is crucial because the audience is drawn to pictures than plain words. A strong visual image that represents your company (a logo for example) should introduce you to the audience at a glance. Poorly-designed imagery, on the other hand, will not help create a strong impression.
4. Failure to Audit Branding Efforts. Branding is just like any other marketing strategy. It can either be a success or a failure. It would be wise to study whether you are doing the right thing or not because if you failed to do so, you will just be wasting time, efforts, and resources over a strategy that does not work.
5. Not Connecting with the Right Audience. Not knowing where to direct you campaigns will only lead you to doom. It is a must that you identify a target audience for you to focus all the marketing elements towards what they need and want, where they are, what their purchasing powers are, etc.
Your Turn…
Brand marketing is the process of building an image that you want the customers to perceive about you. Essentially, it is the blueprint of your business that will guide you towards achieving your goals. The modern marketing world is extensive but there should be no reason why you cannot flourish in it.
What you need is to prioritize the branding process and establish your brand from there. It is never too late to start with branding. Now that you have these tips and are already aware of the mistakes that you must avoid, you can start creating and implementing your brand strategy. No, it is not going to be easy but you can make it happen with solid strategies and a bit of creativity.
