The SaaS Growth Blog

By Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré & Trevor Hatfield

We’re in the midst of writing our SaaS Growth Playbook – a zero bullshit, actionable guide to growing SaaS businesses that are set up to scale from the start. It’s an ambitious undertaking, because so much has been written about this. Really great books like The Startup Owner’s Manual (currently highlighted and bookmarked past recognition on our desks), The Lean Startup and Lean Analytics, Value Proposition Design, and that whole “Jobs to be Done” thing? Is that a book yet? Because it seems like every founder we’ve spoken with in the last two months can’t stop talking about it.

Any online business is only as good as its marketing. After all, if prospective customers cannot find you online, it doesn’t matter how outstanding your product or service is, right? SaaS businesses are no exception, but just because marketing is key to the business model, that fact alone doesn’t mean that you can launch a successful campaign at any point and expect results. In order to make the most of the resources involved in successful marketing, there’s a great deal of work that must be done first.

Over time, we’ve developed a more comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t work in design. Whether in reference to interior design or web design, the way a visual element is structured and organized can itself have a tremendous effect on how individuals respond to it. Oftentimes, people aren’t even completely aware of why they react a certain way to something. Rather, the subconscious affects how they feel about what they’re seeing.

The long-term success of any business boils down to its relationship with customers. How your target audience sees your company and the value they prescribe to your product can greatly affect whether you can outshine your competition and gain market share. However, so much focus is placed on customer service that many businesses are missing out on perhaps an even more pivotal concept, namely that of customer success.

Whether you are just getting started with SaaS or you are working to enhance your company, you are probably taking the time to visit us because there is something specific you need help with. We want to speak directly to your needs, so this is us reaching out to you for some prompts!

One of the most critical decisions you can make for your business is your target audience. Before you even start to develop the concept behind your venture -- and this is especially true for the subscription-based model used by SaaS businesses -- it is an absolute necessity to know who your customers are. Such an understanding early on in your business will guide the many decisions ahead and make it that much easier to connect with your customer base.

However, today that stops.

After commenting on a post by SaaSMetrics, I realized how much confusion and mixed definitions there are on the difference between ACV (Annual Contract Value) and ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), which prompted me to think -- "I need to research this a bit more". I want to breakdown my explanation and findings, and define where confusion currently exits.

The buyer’s journey has been around quite some time and comes in many forms. The purpose, however, remains the same. The buyer’s journey is the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service. By mapping out this journey one can create clear messaging and content more specifically to the discovery stage that potential customers are searching within and ultimately drive and convert more qualified leads.

In the perpetual quest to effectively market your product, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. But if you just keep doing the same thing, you’re not going to get different results. Too many marketing professionals think the solution to every marketing dilemma is to continually throw money at a problem.