SaaS Marketing Lessons from ShamWow!

I've never bought a ShamWow!, but I love their TV ads. The hyper-enthusiastic pitchman, Vince, tells me precisely who should buy the product, what it does, why I desperately need it, and how to buy it... all in 60 seconds!

And what's true for super-absorbent towels is often true for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. Sixty seconds may be all the attention you're likely to get from a prospective customer in your first encounter.

If a prospect finds their way to your website, blog, booth, Twitter feed, Facebook page, press announcement, outbound call, or whatever other form of marketing communication you use, figure that they'll give you about a minute to introduce yourself.

Use that time wisely.

Who should buy the solution?

First make it clear who should be using your solution. Explain, for example, that it's for" K-12 school administrators in Michigan," "property managers with less than 1000 properties" or "auto loan processors." The more specific, the better.

I know companies hate to narrow their market, but something that claims it's "useful to everyone," usually isn't appealing to anyone in particular. (See "Please don't sell me stuff I don't need")

What is the solution?

Give the prospective customer a "handle" to quickly grasp what the solution is. Put it into a recognizable category, for example, "it's a document back-up system," or "it's an inventory management solution." Of course, your solution is better than everybody else's in the category, but first you need to get the prospect thinking about the right category.

Once you get them in the right ballpark, then you can differentiate, as in "we're like Groupon, but much less expensive for merchants to participate,"or "we're a marketing advisory firm that specializes in SaaS for enterprises."

Why do you need this solution?

In classic marketing-speak, this refers to the axiom: "Talk about benefits, not features." Pitchman Vince tells me that ShamWow! will save me time and money cleaning my car, my boat, or my house. There's no mention of how it works or what it's made of, except to say that it's engineered to soak up lots of liquid.

Technology companies, SaaS companies included, often fall into the trap of rambling on about their technology - lots of talk about architecture, platforms, development languages, etc. that describe how the product works. Better to focus on the problems it fixes. At least in their first exposure to a product, most customers care about what it does, not how it works.

Why do you need to buy it from me?

Tell the prospect why they need to buy the solution from you. Explain why yours is better than alternatives. For SaaS solutions, the advantages are often that they're less expensive, easier to maintain, lower risk, easier to use, and faster to deploy. (See "SaaS advantages in a volatile market")

Don't focus only on product advantages, narrowly defined. In subscribing to a SaaS solution, the customer is buying into a long-term relationship, a promise that you'll reliably deliver a service over the life of the subscription. So talk about your reliability, security, and customer service. (See "Winning customer trust.")

And don't forget that the alternatives aren't always other automated solutions. The competition may well be home-grown Excel- or paper-based solutions.

How do you buy it?

Provide a clear path to action. ShamWow's directions - "Call now. Operators are standing by"- may not work for most business-to-business solutions. But your website should make it crystal clear what you want the visitor to do: "Download this paper," "Sign up for a free trial," "Contact us for a demo."

Selling an enterprise SaaS solution is usually a multi-step process. During the first engagement with a prospective customer, you want them to take the next step forward in the process. Make it very obvious where you want them to step.

Other ShamWow! techniques have already been adopted

Though you may not have thought much about lessons from ShamWow! for marketing a SaaS solution before now, some techniques have already been embraced. "Sign up now. Get two months free. No credit card required," isn't much different than "Buy now and we'll give you two mini-ShamWows at no extra charge!"




This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Get your SaaS customers off to a healthy start

I recently switched to a new health club. It's better maintained, friendlier, and less crowded than my old club. I also like that there's no up-front membership fee, just a monthly subscription.

But making a change from my well-worn routine, set in place over 12 years, could have been a difficult jump. New location, new equipment, new people.

But all worked out well. Here's why.

On my first visit to the new club, the manager introduced himself, gave me a card with his contact information on it, and introduced me to an assistant manager who was at the front desk.

Then the manager showed me through the facility. He explained how to sign up for spin classes, where to find the jump ropes, and how to adjust the steam room controls.

Finally, he introduced me to a trainer to set me up with a workout regimen. We didn't go through every elliptical trainer, Bosu ball, and Cybex machine in the club, but the trainer put in place a basic program for me.

Renewals are vital for both health clubs and SaaS companies

Health clubs, like software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, depend on renewals. And the customer's first experience with the service - the on-boarding process - is critical. Get off to a good start and it's much easier to retain customers.

How did my new health club get this right and how can SaaS companies do the same?

Create a connection to a person with responsibility

On my first visit as a paying customer, I was introduced to the club manager, his assistant, and I knew how to reach them. I now had a direct connection to someone I could talk to with suggestions, complaints, or compliments.

It also works for SaaS companies. Let the customer know who they should talk to with any issues related to the service. It might be one person or it might be two or three (for example. one for support, one for billing, etc.) but try to make a direct connection. A simple letter - "Thank you for becoming a customer. If you need anything, ask me." - can suffice.

Help the customers help themselves

The manager showed me around the club and offered specific instructions on how to take care of basic tasks myself. Of course, I'd had a tour before I signed up, but he walked me through again, this time providing more detail on where things are and how things work.

SaaS companies should do the same. Help new customers to find their way around the service. Walk them through the basics, so the next time they'll have the knowledge to manage it themselves. Better yet, they'll have the confidence to explore further and find new features on their own. A written guide on how to take the first steps, with lots of screen shots, can be helpful.

Deliver immediate value

On my first visit to the health club as a paying customer, a personal trainer got me started on a basic routine. She showed me how to use a few basic machines, adjusted the seats properly, and set a "don't hurt yourself" weight. She even wrote it down for me on "Personalized Workout" tracking sheet. This wasn't a $60 per hour personal training session... it was just part of the welcome process. Following that session, though, I had an established commitment to a new routine.

Likewise, SaaS companies should concentrate on getting their new customers to start to actually use the service. Make sure they know how to login. Help them enter data and walk them through a few basic tasks. Get them using the product and make it part of their routine.

Getting customers successfully on-board is critical to health clubs and SaaS companies. A positive initial experience likely means happy customers. And happy customers means more renewals. (See more on why retention is critical: "SaaS renewals and the multiplier effect")

By the way, on my 3-times per week visits to the health club, I've been making good use of the steam room. The spin class... not so much.





This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

What do you mean by "marketing?"

I'm not always sure what people mean when they say "marketing."

PR agencies sometimes call themselves "marketing agencies." So do some graphic design firms. Even the outfits that sell tchotchkes - the stuff you give at away at tradeshows, annual sales meetings, and holiday parties - call themselves "marketing firms."

It can be hard to tell what "marketing" is or what it's supposed to do.

Here's how I think about it: Marketing's job is to help acquire and retain customers.

Marketing supports the entire customer acquisition process:

• generating awareness
• building interest
• attracting leads
• nurturing leads into qualified opportunities
• converting opportunities into paying customers.
  

And in the case of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, marketing is also responsible for helping to retain and renew existing customers.

Don't squeeze marketing

Yes, it's a broad scope of responsibility. That may explain why folks sometimes squeeze "marketing" into a narrower role.

For example, they call it "marketing," but they're really only talking about building visibility, and the sole focus is on search engine optimization or social media.

Or they call it "marketing," but the primary focus is on establishing credibility and thought leadership. These companies tend to rely heavily on webinars, white papers, and speaking at industry events.

Or they call it "marketing," but their entire task is to generate leads.

Of course, each one of these activities is part of the marketing function, but they are not all of it. And if companies focus solely on one isolated element, they may fail to achieve the overall goal: acquiring and retaining customers.

How can you tell when a company is confused or doesn't recognize marketing's broader role?

Counting the wrong things

For one, you'll see them counting the wrong things. If the primary assignment of marketing is to build visibility, they'll tend to focus on metrics such as "impressions," "followers" or "likes."

Counting these things might be important, but only if they're connected to the overall goal. How many impressions are required to generate a lead that can be nurtured into a qualified opportunity and eventually converted to a paying customer?

Lead tossing

A second symptom is "lead tossing." A marketing group that is tasked and rewarded exclusively for generating leads, for example, will often accumulate a long list of names, phone numbers and email addresses which they periodically toss over to the sales group.

Whether or not sales can actually close any of those leads and secure a paying customer isn't marketing's concern.

Pig in the python

When marketing's role is too narrowly confined, you'll often see a "pig in the python." That is, a large number of prospects stuck somewhere in the sales funnel. For example, marketing attracts lots of website visits, but few visitors provide enough information to become a qualified lead. Or marketing generates a lot of trialers, but the company can't convert them into paying customers.

In these cases, marketing is performing one particular task very well, but the overall process is failing.

SaaS firms in particular can't afford to pay for ineffective customer acquisition. If the role of marketing is too narrowly defined and doesn't span the entire customer acquisition and retention process, it will be difficult for a SaaS business to succeed.




This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Naming SaaS solutions and escaping the 1990s

One afternoon in the Spring of 1993 in a conference room in San Jose, California I learned that product versions for software are meaningless.

Well, not exactly meaningless, but mathematically illogical, as in 1 + 1 = 4.

The product manager for Lotus 1-2-3 and I were briefing an influential Dataquest analyst on the forthcoming enhancements to the Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows spreadsheet. It was a major overhaul of the less-than-successful version 1.0 and 1.1 releases of the product.

Favorably impressed with nifty new features like instant charting and "Scenario Manager," the analyst suggested we abandon plans to label the new product "release 1.5" or even "2.0."

If we really wanted to make an impact, to heck with arithmetic. Skip a few steps entirely and call it "Lotus 1-2-3 Release 4."

And the tagline that adorned the tee-shirt read: "It's Not Just a New Version. It's a New Vision."

Version numbers are irrelevant for SaaS solutions

Which brings me to the naming conventions for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

When it comes to sticking version numbers on SaaS solutions, don't bother with labels like 1.1, 2.0, or anything-dot-anything.

Also drop any notions about using "Winter" release or a "Spring" release. These seasonal monikers work for beer; not for SaaS solutions. (I also suspect they're confusing to customers in the southern hemisphere.)

In the old world of desktop applications and on-premise software, we made a big deal about new versions. It helped us sell more software. Our version 4.0 must be better than the competitor's version 3.0. And it must be way better than our old version, 1.1.

It worked really well for awhile and companies made a lot of money on this upgrade cycle. Every couple years we convinced people to rip out the old stuff and buy some new stuff.

An old naming convention doesn't fit a new model

But the logic of the upgrade cycle, and the version labels that went along with it, don't fit with SaaS solutions.

In the SaaS model, solutions are upgraded regularly and the upgrades are delivered as part of the subscription. The user doesn't have an installed version that's outdated, because the user doesn't have an installed version at all.

And if the prospective customer is asking "Which version release will I be buying," you need to do a better job of educating them on the basics of SaaS.

The only people who should know or care about version numbers are in your customer support group. In order to diagnose problems, they may need to know precisely which version the customer has access to at any particular time.

But that doesn't require a big, bold label a la "Lotus 1-2-3 Release 4," "Oracle 8i" or "Windows 95." Version numbers on SaaS solutions are sooooo 1990s.







This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Old marketing tools in a new marketing world

I was talking yesterday with a friend who I know from the old days doing public relations. PR back then was about preparing announcements, backgrounders and glossy photographs, arranging press and analyst tours (usually under embargo), and pitching stories over the phone.

Moderate success was a few column inches and a color screenshot in a trade publication. Big time success was positive coverage in The Wall St. Journal or The New York Times.

Things change... but not entirely.

The new PR

I work with clients who still use PR to generate visibility. Now press announcements are heavy with keyword phrases and sprinkled with links, and we send along photos as a .pdf or .gif. They're sent on to bloggers and news aggregators as well as to the shrinking pool of journalists with more traditional publications. The press announcements are also "self-published" via the company's own blog, newsletter or website.

Live events still live

Companies still do live events, too. Though there are plenty of options for people to virtually connect, sometimes face-to-face contact is better. Though events can be expensive - exhibit space, booth set-up, shipping & drayage, plus travel expenses - they can be effective if you clearly understand where events fit in the overall customer acquisition process. Though you may only talk to a handful of prospects at a regional event, if 3 or 4 of them convert to paying customers, it may be a great investment.

Events have also been infused with newer, social media elements. Nearly all of them label themselves with a Twitter hashtag, and the online conversations about the proceedings are every bit as rich as the in-person presentations. Sometimes more so.

Outbound calls are "social selling"

Even outbound telephone calling has had a social media facelift. There's a new concept known as "social selling." In contrast to the traditional cold call, outbound sales people use social media to better target and prepare for telephone conversations.

Here's my point:

Don't rule out marketing tools that you think may be too "traditional." PR, events, and outbound telephone calling techniques have all been "social media-ized," making them more "modern" and more effective. Try them, measure the results, and see if they fit into your SaaS marketing mix.




This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Tired brains are bad for SaaS

Thinking too hard can tire out your brain.

Research has shown that our brains can suffer from "decision fatigue" after strenuous mental exercise. It's similar to the way our muscles get tired after strenuous physical exercise.

Experiments conducted at German automobile dealerships put prospective customers through a kind of mental decathlon. They asked them to choose among four choices of gearshift knobs,13 choices of wheel rims, 25 engine and gearbox configurations, and 56 color options. After being forced to make a string of decisions, the subjects/ customers succumbed to "decision fatigue" and opted for the default option. They lost much of their capacity to make choices.

Too many choices can be exhausting, and the customer quickly opts for the path of least resistance. That may mean choosing a default option or it may mean choosing to do nothing.

What applies to cars, applies to SaaS too

When prospective customers' brains are tired, it's more difficult to sell automobiles. It's also more difficult to sell technology solutions.

That's a special problem for SaaS solutions, when it's critically important to acquire customers quickly and cost-efficiently. Anything that impedes purchases is a SaaS business killer.

What hoops have you set up?

What kind of decisions do you force your prospective customers to make? How many hoops do you ask them to jump through?

Walk through the process yourself - from start to finish - and count how many decision points your prospects confront. Often we're asking them to navigate through a tortuous labyrinth of options,... even before they buy anything:

• Which of our solutions is most appropriate for your company?
• Which version is the best fit?
• How many seats will you need?
• Would you prefer the free trial or the freemium version?
• Which payment plan works best for you?
• How long would you like to subscribe for?
• Would you like paper or plastic? (OK I don't actually see that one very often for SaaS solutions.)

I agree that there's a legitimate desire to steer the prospect to the best solution to meet their particular needs. But be careful to balance that against the real danger of tiring them out. And offer default options when possible.

Very few exhausted and frustrated prospects become profitable and satisfied customers.





This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

SaaS advantages in a volatile market

For the last few years, NASCAR, Indy car, and Formula One drivers have been wearing a special head restraint, known as a HANS (Head and neck support) device. It's designed to prevent severe injuries from violent whiplash when the race car suddenly decelerates, as in a crash.

For business folks who have been whiplashed over the past few days by the sudden jolts in the stock market, this device might look attractive for more than just race car drivers.

But along with head and neck restraints to deal with volatility, businesses should be looking at software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions as well. SaaS offers several valuable advantages in this uncertain market, and marketers should be touting them.

No long term lock-in

Many SaaS subscriptions run year-to-year or even month-to-month. Companies don't need to lock-in a long term commitment. They can assess their need for the solution periodically and easily make adjustments.

Greater flexibility

SaaS subscriptions often give companies the flexibility to add or subtract users as needed. There's no new hardware or software to bring up or take down. When expanding the business, companies can add users. When scaling back, they can subtract users.

Faster deployment

Most SaaS solutions can be deployed fairly quickly. Though it may take some time to input data, configure the solution and learn how to use it, the SaaS application itself is already up and running. The months required to install and customize on-premise applications is cut to days or weeks.

Coping with uncertainty

The bottom line: your prospective customers are trying to manage in an usually volatile environment. Show them how a SaaS solution can help.




This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.