[Part 4 from the six-part series on SaaS messaging.]

This article will discuss the elements you must consider when mapping your audience to improve the personalization of your SaaS messages.

Terms:

• Audience or target audience: Referring to leads, customers, prospects, users, or community members. I use this term to include all external stakeholders regardless of their buyer’s journey stages. Also, this term works for companies you may want to target.
• Messaging: This includes marketing and sales assets, ABM campaigns, presentations, demos, meetings, onboarding messages, knowledge base entries, or any other element that involves communicating a SaaS brand with its audience.
• Personalization: This term involves the strategic adaptation of messages and communications to resonate with the particularities and specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of individual members or segments within your audience.
  

Knowing (for real) your audience is the number one rule for results-driven communication. Understanding whom you’re talking to is the only way to achieve high-level personalization in your SaaS messages.

Personalization Is What Helps You Connect With Audiences

Personalization is key if you want to craft SaaS messages that feel:

• Relevant, fitting the context and circumstances of target audiences.
• Relatable, resonating with people on a personal level, reflecting their experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
• Empathetic, making people feel seen, considered, and taken care of.
• Engaging, being attention-grabbing, captivating, and irresistible.
• Persuasive, prompting people to change thoughts and attitudes about a subject.
• Actionable, providing clear guidance and conditioning people to take a desired action.
  

So, you have two options.

Conduct audience analysis superficially, identifying general common denominators such as demographics, industry, and company size.

Or, take your time and deep-dive into the analysis, deriving the insights that will help you understand the context of your target audience and craft the right messages.

If you choose the latter, keep reading the article, as we’ll explore the audience attributes you must consider for this analysis.  

One Holistic Approach to Mapping Your Audience

You can choose between different frameworks to map your audience, from Buyer Personas and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) to Value Proposition Canvas and Behavioral Segmentation.

My proposed framework aligns with the canons of defining the Ideal Customer Profile or ICP.

The ICP framework allows a holistic approach (firmographic, contextual, and behavioral) to understand the accounts (people and companies) you’re targeting.

However, I’m offering a slightly different approach to researching and defining the ICP, highlighting specific areas and questions to consider. I do this to ensure you’ll generate insights relevant to your personalization strategy.

When mapping the audience (ICP), I’m asking questions you probably didn’t think about.

But first things first. Let’s understand how mapping the audience works.

So, the main idea is to look at the accounts you want to target (in this case, companies) and identify the common denominators that make them similar.

However, categorizing desired accounts based on industry, annual revenue, and company size is a bit superficial. The market may dictate a different reality, as different contexts will make each target account quite unique.

Moreover, if you’re targeting companies, you may discover that each one involves a wide variety of differentiating elements, such as organizational structure, team dynamics, corporate culture, decision-making roles, and more.

To build a results-driven communication strategy and messaging across all touchpoints and buyer journey stages, you must understand these subtleties.

Mapping the audiences should give you insights into each target account’s common characteristics, as well as the intricate dynamics that may differ from account to account.

Why is this important for messaging personalization?

Because personalization goes beyond simply addressing a customer by name or segmentation based on basic demographics. Efficient personalization requires understanding your target audience’s common denominators as well as its unique context and characteristics.

Six Areas to Consider When Mapping Your Audience

I’m proposing to map target audiences based on six areas.

Let’s take them one by one:

(Note: I’ll use ‘target audience’ when referring to people and ‘target companies’ when talking about entities.)

Area I. Organization

This area refers to exploring the internal structure and procedures influencing decision-making.

To analyze and define your target audience from the organizational and decision-making perspective, focus on the following questions:

1. What type of enterprise are you targeting? For example, the organizational structure of a conglomerate (controlling multiple brands) is different from global brands or local and regional brands.
2. What department(s) will benefit most from your software? You may discover that your software works well for multiple teams, helping people accomplish different tasks.
3. Who are the end users within the targeted company? Your platform’s end users may differ from those who decide whether to purchase your software.
4. What’s the profile of your champion within the targeted company? What are the characteristics of the professional who may advocate for your software?
5. Who is researching software within the targeted company? The answer may vary from the IT department to the intern that started the work yesterday.
6. Does your target company outsource software research? Maybe they’re collaborating with specialized agencies to identify the best digital solutions.
7. What are the evaluation stages when choosing between multiple software? Is there a protocol regarding this process? Or is it more of an informal process?
8. What business goals do decision-makers aim to achieve?
9. What’s the growth vision of your target company? In which area will they invest the most? Is it digitization?
10. What’s your target audience’s level of commitment? In other words, do your potential prospects seek long-term partnerships or quick-to-use and forget SaaS solutions?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

Answering these questions will allow you to understand your target company’s structure and internal dynamics. Subsequently, this information will contribute to crafting highly relevant messages regardless of where people stand on the buyer’s journey.

For example, you may discover the need to create different messages for decision-makers and end users (who may influence the decision-making process). Or, create personalized and ultra-focused messages depending on your target department.

Moreover, by understanding the decision-making processes within the target company, you can prepare your messaging for each stage and provide relevant information to your audience.

Finally, you can create messaging that resonates with your target company’s (ICP) business goals and vision for future development.

Area II. Maturity

This area refers to understanding your audience’s knowledge and education regarding challenges and existing solutions.

To analyze and define your target audience from a maturity perspective, focus on answering the following questions:

1. What’s the maturity level of your target audience? Are the people you’re targeting able to acknowledge and articulate the challenges they experience?
2. What are the indicators associated with different maturity stages? How will you evaluate the maturity level of the people you are targeting? Do you have specific criteria?
3. What are the ‘aha’ moments in your targeted audience’s maturation journey? What information/knowledge will help them evolve and better understand their needs?
4. How digitally fluent is your target audience? What’s their level of proficiency? Will they understand technical jargon, or are you targeting people who are not aware of it?
5. What terms or concepts are unfamiliar to your target audience? Are you using specific jargon, acronyms, or specialized platform terms that may be foreign to your audience?
6. How familiar is your audience with the solutions landscape? Do they have industry-related knowledge? How do they conduct market research? Are they aware of your competitors? Or do they have previous experience with other SaaS solutions?  
7. How important is it for your company to solve the problem that your software helps with?
8. How does your target audience educate itself regarding challenges and solutions? Do they read specialized blogs or newsletters? Do they follow industry experts?
9. How well and fast can your audience recognize the value your SaaS provides? Are they knowledgeable enough to recognize it easily?
10. How will your audience assess the performance of your SaaS? What criteria will they consider?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

This information will help you understand the mental process your target audience goes through to acknowledge and articulate existing challenges.

As a result, you’ll be able to craft personalized messaging for different maturity levels, guiding your target audience through their journey.

Area III. Stakeholders

This area refers to understanding your audience’s business (what they do to generate revenue) and their external stakeholders, such as customers and partners.

To analyze and define your target audience from this perspective, focus on answering the following questions:

1. What’s the value proposition of your target companies? What are their main products?
2. What’s the business model of your target companies? How do they generate revenue?
3. How do your target companies generate new customers?
4. How do your target companies retain their customers?
5. Who are the customers of your ideal customers? What’s their profile?
6. What platform qualities do your target companies seek? (When talking about a B2B2C SaaS product)
7. What values do your target companies appreciate the most? What are their cultural and ethical frameworks?
8. What’s the industry network of your target companies? For example, skincare brands usually forge partnerships with dermatologists, influencers, beauty salons and spas, healthcare professionals, retailers and distributors, and more.
9. How does your target audience communicate with customers? What are their messaging practices? Do they focus on hosting events? Do they build and nurture brand communities? What’s their main strategy?
10. What are the characteristics of the communities your target companies build? What values and interaction dynamics are built into these communities?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

If you’re in the B2B market, chances are your target companies have customers and seek ways to increase their revenue. Is your SaaS solution optimized to help them with this task?

If yes, understanding the business of your target companies is helpful in crafting personalized messaging, as you’ll be able to address business-related topics that are of the highest interest to these entities.

Area IV. Industry

This area refers to exploring the context of your audience, including the market, trends, main players, and competitors.

To analyze and define your target audience from an industry perspective, focus on answering the following questions:

1. What industry verticals do your target companies operate in? What are the characteristics of these verticals?
2. What industry horizontals do your target companies operate in? What are the characteristics of these horizontals?  
3. Who are the main industry players, and what makes them different from each other?
4. What market trends may impact your target companies?
5. What tech innovations may influence the industry of your target audience?
6. What industry risks does your target audience have to mitigate?
7. What global and regional factors may impact the development of your target companies?
8. How do your target companies navigate the industry shifts? Are they innovative?
9. How do your target companies establish themselves as industry thought leaders? Do they invest in content marketing? Do they focus on humanizing their brand? Do they host events?
10. What industry regulations impact your target companies?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

This information provides a contextual, bigger-picture understanding of your target audience. It gives insights into the external factors that influence the strategic decisions within your target companies.

This information enables highly personalized messaging focused on addressing the specific challenges, opportunities, and needs most relevant to your ICP.

Area V. Narrative

This area refers to identifying the linguistic terms, meanings, and understandings your target audience operates with.

To analyze and define your target audience from the narrative perspective, focus on analyzing the following questions:

1. What are the brand voice characteristics of your target companies? For example, you may discover that luxury retail brands have a formal voice, focusing on minimalism and excellence.
2. What central themes define the narrative of your target companies? These themes can vary from circular economy to craftsmanship.
3. What core values does your target audience communicate through its digital channels? These can range from sustainability and innovation to transparency and collaboration.
4. Do your target audiences nurture a brand story? For example, well-established luxury campaigns may associate their products with heritage, focusing on their history.
5. What terms and definitions do your target companies operate with?
6. What proprietary concepts have your ideal prospects developed? For example, Pernod Ricard, the wine and spirits conglomerate, developed the concept of “Convivialité,” or “turning every social interaction into a genuine, friendly, and responsible experience of sharing.”
7. What exact words does your target audience use to express their needs?
8. What exact words does your target audience use when searching for solutions?
9. What technical jargon does your target audience use?
10. How do your target companies handle the translation of industry-related terms? Do they have specific style guides and glossaries, or do they not pay much attention to this topic?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

Gathering the narrative intel will help you mirror your target companies and speak their language.

This approach lets you align your messaging with your audience‘s unique linguistic styles, values, and topical interests. By understanding and adopting the specific vocabulary, thematic priorities, and storytelling methods that resonate with them, you can create content that feels familiar, trustworthy, and relevant.

Area VI. Tech

This area refers to analyzing your audience’s overall tech stack and tech expertise.  

To analyze and define your target audience from the tech stack perspective, focus on answering the following questions:

1. What tech stack do your target companies have in place? What are the main SaaS solutions they use in their digital ecosystem?
2. Do your target companies use a centralized or decentralized tech stack? This may vary depending on the format of the organization. For example, conglomerates may opt for a decentralized tech stack, while brands may use a centralized approach.
3. Is there an app sprawl issue inside your target companies?
4. Is your target audience involved in developing in-house solutions? What’s their scope and capability?
5. What’s the level of interest target companies have for open API?
6. What’s the level of in-house tech expertise? Is it common for your target companies to have IT experts in-house? Do they have an IT team? Or do they outsource everything related to the IT infrastructure?
7. What factors does your target audience evaluate when choosing potential tech providers? What are the must-have features?
8. What does the SaaS research process look like for your target audience? What are the research steps? Do they visit third-party platforms for research?
9. What certification requirements do your target companies have when selecting a SaaS provider? (HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, ISO 9001, to name a few)
10. How much do your target companies value the SaaS providers’ geographical location? Are they open to working with an international SaaS? Or do they seek to engage with a team that is in close proximity?
    

How does this help with personalizing SaaS messages?

Understanding the digital ecosystem of your target audiences will help you tailor your messaging to address specific technological needs and preferences. Knowing their tech stack‘s composition and approach to integrating SaaS solutions, you can highlight how your product fits within their existing infrastructure.

Final note

Mapping the audience can extend beyond the framework I’ve proposed. You can add more questions and areas. However, the goal is to generate insights that can help with personalized messaging regardless of the similarities or differences between your target companies. Go granular and test your messaging continuously.

Also, know that this process requires long-term consistency. So, be open to always learning something new about your audience and use these insights to create messages that connect (for real) with the people/companies you’re targeting.

Read the entire series on SaaS messaging:

• Understanding the Real Complexity of SaaS Messaging (part 1/6)
• The 4 Attributes You Must Consider for Great SaaS Messaging (part 2/6)
• How to Achieve Consistency in Your SaaS Messaging (part 3/5)
• How to Maintain Continuity in Your Dialogue with Audiences (part 5/6)
• How to Ensure the Quality in Your SaaS Messaging (part 6/6)