It's Hard to Overcome Inertia

One thing I’ve learned in talking with customers:  People have a high threshold for pain.  It’s really difficult to get them to move away from whatever system they’re using to handle some task in their organization – no matter how bad that system is - and adopt a new one.

When I talk with customers that have recently purchased a new software-as-a-service (SaaS)

solution for their organization, I always ask “What system did you have before, and why did you decide to change.”

I nearly always hear back that the system they used before had to be bad - really, really bad - before they decided to replace it.  Even when they know that it’s less than optimal – slow, hard-to-use, messy, whatever – they will often choose to just live with that pain if they can. 

I’ve heard this from HR managers, finance executives, property managers, advertising professionals, and pretty much everyone else.  Most people are willing endure a lot in order to avoid the expense and hassle of making a change. 

Only urgent problems get attention

If people are busy in most organizations, that’s doubly true for folks that are considering SaaS solutions.  As I’ve talked about before, these people have day jobs.  They’re managing HR, finance, sales, or some other full-time responsibility.  They don’t have a few open weeks or months to evaluate SaaS solutions.  They have a long list of tasks to focus on and only the most urgent problems an get their attention.  (See video “Only urgent problems get attention.”)

If you’re marketing a SaaS solution and the problem you solve is way down on your prospect’s list of problems that need attention, your first task is to push that problem toward the top of the list.  An annoying problem – one they can live with - needs to become an urgent problem – one that can’t be ignored.

Look for deeper pain

When SaaS solution vendors are touting their advantages over existing systems, I typically hear some variation of this: “We’re faster and we’re less expensive.”  They talk about how their system will save

the customer money and let them work more efficiently.  Some will go on to quantify the saving and even calculate the ROI on buying their solution.

“Faster and cheaper” are useful advantages, but they’re usually just table stakes.  Marketers should look for the deeper, more urgent problems – issues that can truly imperil the business - that can more effectively motivate a prospective customer.  

For a financial services professional, for example, their biggest problem – one near the top of their list – may be the need to reduce risk.  For an HR professional, it may be that they are so buried in administrivia that they’re unable to have significant impact on the organization.  I once heard from a property management executive that managed several different offices that their biggest fear was the risk of embezzlement.

Focus first on the pain, not the solution

A reminder to marketers: your biggest competitor is usually inertia.  At least in the initial discussions with prospective customers, you’re usually competing against the impulse to “do nothing,” not against a vendor offering a similar solution. 

Showing how you stack up against other vendors’ solutions doesn’t matter so much at this stage.  It’s way more important to show that the customer has an urgent problem – one that cannot be ignored.  Only when they get there have you earned the right to show them that you can solve that problem.

Avoiding Website Ratholes: Advice for SaaS Marketers

Nobody seems happy with their website. 

In talking with lots of Marketing managers over many years, I’ve found that they tend to fall into one of only two camps: 

• People that are currently redoing their website, or
• People that are planning to redo their website.

In other words, nobody’s really happy with their existing website.

Over the last year, I’ve worked with 4 different clients on a complete overhaul of their websites.  And I’ve recommended suggestions for website improvements for almost every other client.

Too many choices

One of the most challenging parts of overhauling a website, or building one from scratch, is all the choices.  You need to make decisions about design, text, navigation, development, illustrations, ad infinitum. 

Though certain conventions have been established (e.g. a navigation bar running horizontally across the top of the page), there are still millions of details to wade through.  I’ve had discussions about the right color of a person’s hair in a stock photo, I kid you not.  Working through all these issues large and small, it’s easy to get lost, stuck, or frustrated.  You can head down a lot of ratholes.

Based on my experience – meaning I’ve gone down lots of these ratholes myself - let me offer some suggestions on avoiding the same mistakes.

Keep your goals top-of-mind

Specify your primary goals at the start of your website overhaul, get everyone on board, and keep those goals in front of you throughout the project.  They’ll help you stay focused, remind you of your priorities, and guide you as you work through details.

As you think about whether to add a particular section, use a screenshot instead of an illustration, or where to put call-to-action buttons, refer back to your overall goals.  Which action best supports those objectives? 

By the way, you may find that some of these choices make no real difference at all, in which case you’re wasting time fixating on them.  Move on.

Clearly articulate your value proposition

The key benefits and advantages of your solution should be consistently conveyed throughout your website.  In fact, that should be the case with all your marketing programs.  (See “Two essentials for SaaS marketing.”)

You can argue about particular words or illustrations, but the messages should be set in stone.  It should be crystal clear to the visitor who your solution is for, what problem it solves, and why they should buy it from you.  Don’t move ahead with the website until the value proposition and messages are in place.

Work from an outline

Before you start writing text, selecting illustrations, considering designs, or doing anything else, prepare an outline.  Think through and get agreement on the structure, the purpose, and contents of each page or section.  You’ll probably end up making changes as you get into the project, but to use a construction analogy, you don’t want to be designing the house while you’re building it.

 

Measure what can be measured

Rely on actual website data when it’s available. Information on visitors’ behavior collected on the   You’ll see how visitors found you, how they entered and navigated through the site, what material was most popular, what material was never found, and other vital information that can help you make improvements with the new site.  Referring to data can often be more useful than opinions in guiding the project.

existing site can often be helpful in making decisions about the new site.

Overhauling a website or building an entirely new one is a big project.  But that’s what you should expect with such a critical piece of your customer acquisition process.  It will require hard thinking, difficult decisions, and probably more time than you think.  By following a few basic rules, though, you should be able to make the experience a bit less frustrating and a lot more productive.

Is all that blogging working for you?

I’m a believer in blogging.  I’ve been writing a monthly post for more than 10 years, and people do find me through my blog.

Based on the numbers, I know lots of others have a similar faith in blogs.  I’m not sure of the official

count, but my guess on the total number of blogs out there is about a billion.

Blogs are a standard part of the marketer’s repertoire, and for good reason.  Done well, they can help companies attract visibility and gain credibility.  If they’re publishing useful information, people that care about the topic should pay attention, and they may conclude that the writer is some kind of an expert.

But what if they’re not done so well?

Write about what the reader cares about

Sometimes blogs start off on the wrong foot right from the start.  Instead of being about topics the reader might care about, they’re all about the company and its products.  They’re just a series of promotional copy, barely disguised as a blog.  Who would want to regularly read something like that? 

My friend, John Crowley, writes a blog for People HR, a company that markets software for HR professionals.  It’s one of the most popular HR blogs in the U.K. and covers all kinds of topics that HR managers care about.  The blog almost never talks about HR software.  Instead, it offers useful insights on video interviews, employee mental health, office dress codes, and workplace coffee etiquette.  One of its most popular posts is titled: “How to tell a colleague they smell.”

Write on a regular schedule

Lots of marketing people commit to a blog schedule that’s way too ambitious.  Though I’m sure their intentions are good, marketers that plan to crank out a blog post every week or even 2 or 3 times per week may underestimate how much work that requires.  That initial flush of enthusiasm usually wanes after a few tortured weeks living under a deadline.

I do see a post from Seth Godin every single day, even it’s only a few sentences, but that commitment is super-human.  On the other hand, thousands of us SaaS Marketers – me included - avidly read For Entrepreneurs from David Skok, which he publishes only a few times per year. 

The lesson here is that consistency matters.  Publish on a regular schedule and commit the time and resources to hit that schedule.  Seeing a blog with the most recent post dated “2013” doesn’t send the right message.

Show some personality

One of the great things about blogs is how easy they are to publish.  No giant corporate infrastructure is required.  Someone with something useful to say can just have at it. 

And blogs are best when they actually sound like they’re written by someone – a real person – not some anonymous corporate oracle. 

I have no problem with blog writers adhering to corporate standards and reflecting the company’s particular culture.  But how many people are eager to regularly read a stream of disembodied corporate mush?

My friend Michael Katz’s posts include stories about his family and friends.

For years, my own blog posts included a family of cartoon characters to accompany them, hopefully to illustrate key points.  But when someone commented that the cartoons don’t look “professional,” I left them out of a few issues. 

Surprisingly, I then got comments that readers missed the cartoons.   I missed them too.  So, I brought them back, “corporate image” be damned.   

Blogs can be a helpful marketing tool.  But if you choose to do one, make it interesting, publish it regularly, and don’t be afraid to show some personality.

Are you just talking about marketing or are you actually doing something?

Lots of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are thinking and talking about marketing.  They’re

sitting in on webinars, downloading white papers, hiring marketing experts and agencies, and even reading newsletters (like what you’re reading right now.)

If they want to grow, the folks that run these companies know they need marketing: a cost-effective program to generate leads, convert the leads into paying customers, and keep those customers.

They can’t rely on their sales team to bring 100% of their opportunities.  Though it may work in the company’s early stages, it’s tough to make that method scale.

So these executives do lots of research, develop comprehensive plans, even engage with marketing professionals to put in place a well-structured customer acquisition and retention plan.

Marketing gets derailed by shorter term priorities

All of this activity is a good start.  But that’s all it is: a good start.  The research, the plans, the experts only matter if you put them to work.

And that’s where things get complicated, especially for smaller firms eager to grow. 

For companies in this spot, their resources are stretched.  There’s simply too much to do and not enough resources to get it done.

So urgent needs take priority, and the marketing tactics get pushed down the action list:

·      “Yes, we need to prepare customer success stories, but this week we need to prep for 5 demos.”

·      “Yes, we need to coordinate an email campaign, but right now we’re focused on this RFP.”

·      “Yes, we need to get out that quarterly newsletter, but these 2 deals need immediate attention.”

·      “Yes, we need to prepare a webinar for prospective customers, but today we need to [ fill in an urgent item of your choice here.]

Don’t let another year go by

I get it: you’ve got lots of stuff on your plate.

And implementing effective marketing plans takes a sustained commitment.  It doesn’t happen by itself, and there’s no magic, one-time fix. (See “Going viral is over-rated”) 

If you’re serious about growth, spend the time and spend the money it takes to cost-effectively acquire and keep customers.  According to a survey of 378 privately-held SaaS companies, the fastest growing companies spent the most on customer acquisition, and marketing accounted for at least 30% of those costs.   

So, if you’re putting your plans together for next year, now’s the time to commit to marketing.  Not just the planning, but also the doing.  Find resources within your company, bring on new people, or use outside experts. 

I don’t mean to scold you here, but a year from now, you don’t want to look back and regret that you’ve made no real progress.  Start with a marketing plan and then put it into action.

Marketing Ideas that Rarely Work

Lead gen, lead gen, lead gen.  For lots of SaaS marketers, these are their top 3 priorities. 

They’re under pressure to deliver leads to feed the sales pipeline… every week, every month, every  

quarter.

So, I understand the temptation to try find a shortcut to lead generation – a quick and easy way to deliver on the quota. 

Resist the temptation.

Any advice you get that points you toward some quick and easy way to deliver leads… ignore it.  (See "Why I'm not a fan of marketing hacks.")

Here’s a few of the ideas that are likely to tempt you.

The magic bullet:  Under this scheme, you search for the one perfect marketing tactic, guaranteed to open the floodgate to qualified leads.  It means building the one viral video, finding the can’t-miss email list, hosting the perfect webinar, or going to the one event guaranteed to put you in front of all of your hottest prospects. 

I’ve seen all of these tactics and even tried a few myself.  They do not work.

Or to be more specific, they do not work all by themselves. 

When you’re selling a B2B solution, you typically need to reach a prospect several times through a variety of channels.  (See “Sometimes prospects just aren’t ready to buy.”)  One touch, no matter how clever, won’t do it.

Set it and forget it:  You cannot put your lead gen efforts on auto-pilot.  Tactics that are working for you now probably won’t work forever. 

Sometimes competitors may interrupt you.  For example, they’ll outbid you on particular paid keywords.  Pay-per-click and SEO campaigns need regular attention and fine-tuning.

Other times, prospects stop responding to tactics the same way they used to.  Anybody remember “dimensional mailers” or “business reply cards?”

To quote Tower of Power, “What is hip today may tomorrow be passé.” 

Let the partner do it:  There are times that partnerships can be helpful.  Teaming up with a larger company could help expand your visibility and attract more opportunities. 

But partnerships do not work by themselves.  They require care and feeding.

Imagine you’re partnering with salesforce.com, for example. Though you’re connected to a well-known brand and have access to an impressive menu of sales and marketing resources, you can’t just slap the partner logo on your website and put out a press announcement. 

It’s work to get your company and your solution to stand out among the thousands of other partners in the AppExchange.  It requires effort to get the attention of the salesforce AEs or prospects within this universe.  None of this happens just because you’re a certified partner.

All sizzle, no steak:  This is how I describe a lead gen process that's all about tactics and nothing about a message or value proposition.  One program follows another to get in front of potential prospects, and most of the focus is on efficient execution. 

But without an effective message, you probably won’t have much impact.  Prospects need to know who the solution is for, what problem it solves, and why they should buy it from you.  If the marketing programs don’t deliver answers to those questions, expect them to fail.  (See “Spend first, think later:  Bad idea.”)

We’ve all seen email campaigns, highly-produced videos, or free trial offers that invite people to evaluate a solution, but they don’t give a compelling reason why.

Before you spend lots of time and money on marketing programs, develop a compelling and consistent value proposition.

I’ve been marketing technology solutions for a long time, so I get it.  There’s pressure to deliver leads.  Sometimes your compensation even depends on it.  But avoid jumping in on an easy fix.  It may sound tempting, but it rarely works.