This article invites you to pause and look deeper into the dynamics of communication with your target audiences.

Why?

After all, communicating with target audiences seems like a straightforward topic. Usually guided by the protocols of different public-facing teams, communication with target audiences happens in a structured way.

Why spend more time discussing it?

Well, in most cases, communication with target audiences is fragmented.

Multiple teams and departments are responsible for engaging with people at different stages in their customer journey. As a result, communication often occurs in silos rather than being recognized as a cohesive whole.

Subsequently, this may negatively affect the experience of your target audience.

This article aims to help you zoom out, reexamine your understanding of communication with target audiences, and recognize it as an integrated process.

Who Are These Target Audiences?

Here’s the list of external stakeholders that fall under the ‘target audiences’ category:

• Broad industry community: People who may be interested in your content, brand, or product but have yet to initiate an interaction with your company.  
• Leads: People who engage with your company and show an interest in your brand or product.
• Prospects: People who are regarded as potential customers and who may engage in conversations with your sales reps.  
• Users: People who accessed your product through a free trial or free version.
• Customers: People who are paying to use your product.
• Brand community members: People who are part of your broader community built around your SaaS brand.
• Brand creators and educators: People who create and distribute templates based on your software or educate others on how to use it.
  

Every type of target audience has different needs, expectations, and preferences. And your SaaS teams must align their communication strategies and practices with each type’s particularities.

Teams That Communicate With Target Audiences

Each SaaS company has multiple public-facing teams that engage in conversations with target audiences.

• Product team: Product developers may engage with users through feedback and product-related requests.
• Marketing team: Marketing professionals usually engage with the broad industry community or leads.
• Sales team: The sales reps communicate with qualified leads and prospects.
• Customer support (CS) team: The CS reps engage with users to answer inquiries and solve product-related issues.
• Customer success (CX) team: The CX reps work with customers to ensure they  achieve the desired results using the software.
• Community team: The community managers usually communicate with the community members of the brand.
  

Each team has different communication strategies and practices aligned with the context and particularities of its target audience. This leads to a fragmentation of communication with target audiences.

However, some SaaS companies are structured based on Go-To-Market (GTM) teams. These teams involve cross-functional collaboration among professionals from multiple departments, such as product, marketing, sales, CS, CX, or community.

A SaaS company may have multiple GTM teams, each focusing on a different product, business verticals/horizontals, or ideal customer profile. Because of their cross-functional nature, GTM teams take a more cohesive and integrated approach to communication with target audiences.

Key Elements of Communication With Target Audiences

SaaS communication with target audiences works based on the following elements:

Messaging

Messaging refers to the core messages teams want to convey through their communication. SaaS teams should tailor messaging based on the type of audience they’re targeting.

Here’s what shapes messaging takes depending on the target audience type:

• Broad industry community: Focus on informing and educating.
• Leads: Showcase the value proposition of the software.
• Prospects: Highlight the unique selling points and social signals.
• Users: Help maximize the software’s value.
• Customers: Encourage the ongoing use of the product, expanding its value.
• Brand community members: Foster a sense of belonging.
• Brand creators and educators: Empower and reward the users’ effort.
  

Regardless of the receiver, companies should preserve core brand messages, guaranteeing a unified brand experience, as well as the cohesion and continuity of their communication across all customer’s journey stages.

Channels

A channel refers to the environment or platform through which communication occurs.

Public-facing teams operate through different channels when communicating with target audiences. Here are some examples:

• Product team: email, beta testing communities
• Marketing team: email, social media platforms, website and blogs, YouTube, podcast platforms, micro-communities, ads, events
• Sales team: calls, events and webinars, social media platforms, email
• Customer support (CS) team: live chat, in-app messaging, tickets, email, community forums
• Customer success (CX) team: emails, meetings, training sessions, webinars
• Community team: community platform, emails, webinars and live streams, events
  

SaaS teams may create new channels for communication, such as in-app messaging, newsletters, or events, or adopt existing ones, such as social media.

Content

Content refers to the materials or assets through which communication happens. Different SaaS teams may use a wide variety of content formats.

Here are some examples, varying from team to team:

• Product team: changelog entries, product roadmap, documentation, release notes, feature voting
• Marketing team: newsletters, articles, social media posts, podcast shows, web/tv series, case studies, ebooks and whitepapers, guides
• Sales team: product tours, sales presentations, product demos
• Customer support (CS) team: knowledge base entries, user guides, video tutorials, troubleshooting FAQs
• Customer success (CX) team: customer education programs, educational workshops, CX articles
• Community team: community blog entries, forum posts
  

It’s worth mentioning ‘Content-led growth,’ a new term coined by the famous inbound and content expert Mike Kilens. Content-led growth is associated with GTM teams.

Mike suggests that inbound marketing fails to integrate all touchpoints in the customer’s journey. This highlights the general feeling in the industry that SaaS communication with target audiences is fragmented when it should be seen as a whole.

Final note

SaaS communication with target audiences goes beyond attracting new leads or converting them into paying users. Recognizing communication with target audiences as an integrated process unlocks a powerful engine that is working for the company’s growth.