I’d like to talk about marketing skills, or rather, the lack thereof.
You see, a lot of SaaS founders think that they need to become marketing experts in order to grow a successful SaaS company.
Or they assume that they need to have a bunch of revenue, capital, or investment in order to invest in a bunch of ads and get a bunch of new clients.
I’m here to tell you…. that simply isn’t true.
I talk with founders all the time who really struggle with growing their SaaS product because they’re not experts in marketing.
I’ve also talked to others who have figured it out and are growing a really successful SaaS company without being experts in marketing.
It’s not because they’re hiring marketing experts to do it for them, and it’s not because they’re really good at Facebook ads, or amazing at content, though I’m sure those things really help.
However, there are two things I’ve noticed that will cause growth, regardless of whether a technical founder is a marketing expert or not.
The first one that I’ve noticed is that they are super clear on the problem they solve and who they solve it for.
That’s a big one.
Listen: if you have a product, but you’re not clear on who you are solving the problem for and you’re not even clear on what the exact problem is—your potential clients won’t be hooked.
When I say, “solve the problem”, I don’t mean a surface-level problem. I’ve spoken about this before in other blogs but it’s so important that I’ll go over it again.
A surface problem would be like if you’re a design tool. The surface-level problem would then be creating good design. The root problem is “why do they want to create a good design”, and there’s a big difference between those two.
Once you get to the root level, you’ll have different market segments that you can go after.
I’m working with a client right now with my one-on-one coaching program, and they have a really fantastic product and it solves a really big problem.
Unfortunately, they don’t know exactly who they’re solving the biggest problem for, and why they’re trying to solve that problem.
For example, people that go to Canva want to design something new. The reason people want to design something beautiful changes from person to person, so it’s really hard to go find people based on their reasons for wanting a design.
BUT it’s not hard to find people that want a new design.
Someone who wants to design something beautiful but may not be a Photoshop expert.
Founders that are successful in growing a profitable SAS company, but may not have marketing expertise, solve the real problem and know who they are solving it for.
The second one is that these founders are really good at putting that product in the path of the right people, the people looking for their product.
Let me give you another example.
Let’s say your product is a booking tool.
As a booking tool, there’s everybody from students and professors to multibillion-dollar CEOs scheduling meetings, right?
That’s a really broad market segment.
In this situation, you can’t just go find people who are looking for a booking tool.
You can go online and you can run ads for people that are looking for a booking tool and how to book meetings and things like that, but that would be surface-level marketing.
Remember, you need to be specific. Just saying “Anyone who needs a booking tool, look no further!”, won’t work. It’s too broad!
If you understood that your best client were salespeople, trying to schedule sales meetings, or demos with potential clients, how much easier would it be for you to go find groups or communities of salespeople than it would be for you to find people who are just looking to book meetings.
The two things are clear on the problem they solve and who they solve it for, and putting their product in the path of people looking for it.
Those are two big differentiators.
It doesn’t matter if you’re at 1k MRI, or 100k MRI, or even if you’re feeling like scaling is difficult.
It’s usually because those two things aren’t dialed in— 1) you’re not clear on the problem that you solve and who solve it for, and—
2) you’re not putting that product in the path of people that are looking for it.
If you feel like you’re kind of in that zone, where you’re a technical founder who doesn’t have time to learn marketing, SEO and Facebook ads, or Google ads, but you want to figure these things out really quick, I’ve got the tool for you.
(See what I’ve did there? I was specific in who I am marketing to, and I’ve been very clear on the specific problem I can solve! 🙂 )
That’s all for today. See you next time!