B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks

Pricing and packaging is one of the most important aspects of a SaaS business. Without calculated prices and packages that align with your customers, you will lose out on ROI and sour against the competition. Not only do you need to provide the right value, but also you need to effectively monetize it. Value based pricing is key here - give the buyer attractive choices on your terms, instead of fo...

In today’s episode, Mike and Stijn discuss product led growth and sales led growth through an illustrative metaphor of hunting vs. gathering.  If huge, high monetary value accounts are elephants (high ARPU), then the executive or relationship driven sales teams are the expert hunters. If low value, but plentiful accounts are berries and low hanging fruit (low ARPU), then the teams that build conte...

Strong testimonials are your important piece of content. A testimonial from a happy customer means a lot more than a list of product features coming from your marketing team. Anything you can say, a customer can say better. Today we give you an overview of why testimonials are so important, how you should use them, and tactical advice on how to gather them. We even include a 28-question tactical p...

Today we dive into the subtleties of board meetings, and offer a framework for how you should leverage them as a marketing leader, founder, or CEO.  We talk about what boards are for - how can they help you? What do the members want out of the meetings (and the company)?  We also talk about how to interact with the board, and how to prepare for meetings. What should your presentation include? What...

How much money should a B2B SaaS company be spending on marketing?  The answer is “it depends”, but there are a few ways to get a solid calculation.  Today, with our special guest Brian Graf, we discuss the four factors you should consider when trying to create your marketing budget: product maturity, market maturity, growth targets, and growth velocity. We also share the methodology behind our ne...

Today we get into the weeds of what working with marketing agencies should look like as a rapidly growing B2B SaaS company. We discuss the functions agencies should be performing for your business throughout its early growth stages. We address how to structure KPIs around both short and long term metrics so agencies are accountable for both quick wins and sustainable growth. We also give a ballpar...

Part 2 of Ep. 17. Customer (or Contact) Relationship Managers (CRM) are an invaluable resource but can quickly turn into a complex and costly mess if they’re not managed properly or set up to be used by all of your teams (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, etc). Effective marketing leaders can be hard to find, and as your company and product evolve over time, the things you need from your marketi...

In today's part 1 of 2 episode, we tackle 3 major marketing mistakes and bad practices that can often get you into trouble as a young B2B SaaS company. Shutting down initiatives too soon, not knowing when and where to ramp up marketing efforts, and dreaming of brand awareness as a fix-all, are all avoidable issues that can be remedied with some planning and strategic marketing know-how. Experiment...

In today's longer-than-usual episode, we talk about how account-based marketing can help test your go-to-market hypotheses. In episodes 14 and 15, we talked about sizing our niche and positioning ourselves within it. Once that's done it's time to check if our positioning, messaging, ICP, and personas are correct by putting it all to the test. Step 1 is making a list of companies that fit your ICP....

To further nail down your niche, think of your positioning. Can you proclaim a unique value proposition you're confident only you can deliver on? If not, it might be worth revisiting your SOM filters. In cases where your offering is similar to that of competitors, positioning on a couple of vectors you're better at can help you arrive at that unique value proposition. A guarantee based on speed an...

Going after the promise of a large market is a common mistake. By defining your Ideal Customer Profile, you can focus down from the Total Addressable Market to your Serviceable Addressable Market and finally to your Obtainable Addressable Market where you'll encounter a higher win-rate due to specialization.  In this episode we talk about the niche concept, the TAM SAM SOM methodology with its fil...

The best marketing leader marries both the art and science of marketing, the creative and the analytic. They also excel and demonstrate a proven track record in three distinct areas: Marketing leadership – the ability to generate buy-in and followership from peers, direct reports, and superiors. Marketing management – managing the marketing function and rhythm through the use of KPIs, OKRs, daily...

The answer is a good copywriter. But it doesn't stop there. There's five skill groups that need to be fulfilled. It starts with the copywriter because they will take care of the most primordial aspect of marketing: addressing your audience's pain. Then comes the growth hacker, the automation specialist. Marketing and sales go hand-in-hand and that's where your product evangelist shines. Number 3 i...

OKRs help you stay on track with your larger company objectives while also keeping an eye on the day-to-day things and doing the right kind of projects that support the objectives. So it balances the short-term and the long-term. That means: The objective asks "why are you here? What's the reason you're doing marketing?" The key result is something that you can use to measure your progress against...

Brand awareness can be divided into the following categories: Brand recall: ensure that prospects you marketed to months prior will remember your brand once they encounter the challenge you solve Brand recognition: refers to the concept of demarcation, that’s where logos and jingles come in to identify your brand and also drive brand recall later on Brand dominance: achieved when you dominate the...

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) can be calculated a few different ways based on the goal. For financial forecasting and valuation purposes, CAC as a profitability number should be all-inclusive. On the other hand, for the purposes of strategic and tactical marketing management, CAC might not include salaries and instead focus on discretionary spend. Knowing what your CAC number really means is imp...

You don’t need a sophisticated tech stack, you can start with a simple manual spreadsheet (like a bowler chart) then create automated dashboards as you scale: Start small – pick 10–15 of the most important metrics Tracking both leading and lagging indicators – the full ‘story’ is only told when they’re looked at together Input numbers on a weekly basis Use absolute numbers, try to avoid percentage...

Before you get to product-market fit, you need to test your go to market hypotheses. Here's a 5-step framework to help you execute quick GTM tests: Pick an audience. Who’s your product for? Envision a persona who has a problem. A job to be done so to speak. Some kind of pain. Maybe they are in a specific industry, or have certain titles.  Create a value proposition to address the job to be done. W...

Content marketing shouldn’t be complicated. In fact, it’s pretty simple. Start by simply answering the questions your prospects have.  Then, make sure you’re following the basic rules for B2B content: Know its purpose (What's the goal of this piece of content? Inform? Help someone level up?) Speak to a specific problem and person (Who is the person asking the question? What is their level of aware...

"When should we seriously invest in marketing?" We think it's time to ramp up your marketing efforts as soon as you have product-market fit (PMF). But how do you measure product-market fit? In this episode, we go over our definitions of product market fit and the frameworks we use to determine PMF.

In this episode, we're answering the questions: Why do CMOs get fired more than any other leadership role in the C-suite?  What are the pitfalls for marketing leaders joining growing software companies?  What are some of the indicators for long term success in the role? 

"How do I move my software product upmarket?" Before you can make that shift, you need to understand the different requirements between your current customer base and the one you want to have. 

This episode answers the question "How do I prioritize my marketing initiatives"? First, do a gut check. What's the status of your current marketing function? Then, ask how your marketing team can get closer to revenue and reduce funnel friction. Additional resources: Dave Gerhardt - the "get closer to revenue" guy Marketing is like driving a car - an article by Stijn Hendrikse

Welcome to the B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks podcast. This series is dedicated to helping you become an expert in marketing so you can grow your software company's revenues quickly and set the foundation for long term marketing growth. Each week, we'll bring you short-form strategic and tactical concepts that you can adopt into your own playbook right away. Lessons