The Forgotten Role of Branding in SaaS — Mid-sized Technology Companies
We are a generation that is occupied with everything and busy with nothing.
Today, we are in the purpose era!
Building an amazing product is no longer enough; people are looking for brand relationships that involve respect, trust, and admiration. People want to make an impact on society with the value that the brand provides. An attractive, and sometimes only, way to create a purpose that resonates is for it and its supportive culture and values to foster programs that address social challenges. This gives the brand and the user some purpose!
Many companies have a formal motivation to tackle serious and visible challenges in society. They recognize the pressure from our employees and other stakeholders. They also know that societal challenges are serious and frightening and that governments have limited action, resources, and the agility to bring about change. For most companies, the question is no longer a “what if”. as if”.
The answer to the above is that there are two imperatives for a truly effective effort to make a difference in addressing the needs and problems of society. Both rely on branding strategies and tools. These are important but missing elements of many organizations’ social initiatives.
I have been in SaaS technology since I started my internship. In SaaS, we always say we work in the technology world and keep it away from engaging content technology, or we keep focusing on short-sighted visions and beliefs! And I guess this is the time for change!
Step 1: Strengthening the mid-sized SaaS brand with signature social program branding
An organization needs to be focused on the following factors:
1. Energy: Supporting people to make less waste (Reduce the carbon footprint with software)
2. Image: Helping you go from legacy to modernized
3. Engagement: going from customer-centric to customer-obsessed
But remember, we are not going to for Greenwashing! We have to consider only two parameters, the number of people who have learned/utilized our services and the brand visibility has been energized.
Step 2: Following any plan for 6–12 months without changing it on an ad-hoc basis
As a duo of marketer and the CEO/CIO/Sales Leader, we need to focus on two major things:
- What to sell: Offerings that an organization wants to promote
- The message: The message the organization wants to tell the market
Step 3: Analytics, Report, and belief in numbers
This is where we have a lot of reports and numbers, but we tend to just forget about them:
- Maintain the data: The marketing and sales teams must identify their Key performing indices. They must ensure they have quantifiable ched to them and record it in a particular time frame without becoming too lethargic of this meticulous and repetitive task. (I know there are tools like Hubspot, SemRush, Leadfeeder, Leadsquared, Paradot, Marketo etc., but let’s be realistic can we collate all this data together and showcase this to a CEO, a Sales Director, or an HR lead? My personal preference for a mid-sized organization is Microsoft Excel)
- Believe the data: Once you get the data, one must understand whether the marketer has to change the strategy or the sales team has to! And yes, if something functions, wring it out!
Once you have reached here, the only thing we can do is repeat and repeat. Till your organization goes one level up :)
