POV: The Importance of Brand Marketing in SaaS Startups from a CRO
Brand marketing drives demand, performance marketing captures demand
I never labeled myself as a brand marketer. I was a growth marketer, digital, demand gen, social media, even marketing operations. But I have always believed brand and demand go hand-in-hand, especially in SaaS.
As a CMO turned CRO, I fully understand the importance of brand marketing in SaaS. I heard from so many sales reps in my career, “no one knows who we are.” It’s sales #1 complaint behind “we’re not getting enough leads.”
You have to be memorable. Memorable brands are the ones that get invited to the RFP process in SaaS. They are the software that gets bought. Even if there is a better product out there, it’s all about perception and being bold and loud in the market. If you shout it loud and proud, it must be true, right?
“It doesn’t matter if you have the best product/service out there, it’s the memorable ones that are trusted the most and who people buy from” - Tracy Sestili
A brand that is top of mind is a brand that is memorable. John Dawes says 95% of buyers are not “in-market” right now to buy your product/service, which means you are not top of mind for those folks. But in order to be top of mind for when they do need your product/service, you need to do brand awareness activities for when they are ready.
Years ago, when I was a social media and digital consultant, one of the things I did was constantly post tips and tricks about social media on LinkedIn. This was how I got my first teaching gig. I wound up teaching at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley for years and it’s also where I acquired most of my clients in the beginning, after which it became mostly word of mouth.
“You can’t get word of mouth marketing if you don’t have a brand presence.”
As a demand gen leader or growth marketer, you can’t generate leads or demand if you have no brand presence. Yet, in small startups, sub $10M revenue, this is often a problem because there usually is only one budget and it’s all dedicated for acquisition. Suddenly all channels become important, PR, AR, social, digital, events, email, content marketing, and the list goes on. But this is unsustainable to show growth with (usually) tiny budgets, so you have to prioritize your channels. In larger companies this is less of an issue because there is a brand department and a budget to go with it. My advice when the budget is tiny, is to pick two channels plus email and do them well.
For sales, all of the best cold emails and cold calling will be an uphill battle to break through the noise of the competition that are already well known. This is where brand and demand generation can really work closely with sales to have a double impact.
More on this topic next week about the sales and marketing relationship.
Just remember, the most well known B2B brands (Adobe, HubSpot, Slack) focus on their brand, relate it to your struggles in your day-to-day, not their features.