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

This entry aims to help you acknowledge and understand the complexity of SaaS messaging.

Dealing with SaaS messaging is like having multiple balls in the air at once, each requiring precise coordination to keep them all aloft without letting any drop.

You’ll find ways of navigating this complexity in the following parts of this micro-series.

However, this first part explains why effective SaaS messaging is challenging and requires great work, attention, and coordination.

What’s SaaS Messaging

SaaS messaging refers to a company’s efforts to communicate its brand and product to external stakeholders, such as leads, prospects, and customers.

SaaS messaging covers all buyer’s journey stages and is conducted through multiple channels like email, social media, webinars, blog, knowledge centers, and more.

Communication and messages come in different formats, from different SaaS teams, such as development, marketing, sales, customer success/support, and more.

What’s the Goal of SaaS Messaging

The main goal of SaaS messaging is to connect with external stakeholders, get them interested in the SaaS product, and nudge them into paying and using it consistently.

Also, effective SaaS messaging ensures the following results:

• Get the attention of external stakeholders to establish initial engagement.
• Meet them at the stage they are at, as journeys aren’t linear.
• Answer their questions, providing value and relevant insights to establish the brand’s authority and trust.
• Clarify any doubts, providing all the information needed to make a decision.  
• Remove uncertainty, reducing perceived risks associated with the purchase.
• Guide people through the buying cycle, from product discovery to its full adoption and successful use.
  

If that’s not the case, the SaaS messaging fails to be effective, requiring further refinement.

Why Do SaaS Brands Struggle with Messaging?

The short answer is complexity.  

Efficient SaaS messaging involves strong coordination of multiple elements as well as continuous improvements depending on real-life feedback.

Let’s analyze each element one by one and explore the complexities it involves:

Channels

SaaS teams push brand and product messages through different channels, such as:

• Website
• Blog
• Media products (podcasts, TV shows)
• Emails and newsletters
• Social media
• Discovery and demo meetings
• Events and webinars
• Knowledge Center
• Changelogs
• Live chat support
• Online community forums
  

Each channel requires different content formats and delivery, all while maintaining a cohesive brand feeling.

Without strong coordination, SaaS teams risk portraying a fragmented brand image and narrative. For example, a prospect may perceive a company’s social media profile as a completely different entity compared to its website.

All channels should signal the same brand identity and narrative, integrating them all into a cohesive messaging strategy. And that’s not easy.

Stages

SaaS companies should understand the buyer’s journey stages—awareness, consideration, decision, and post-purchase—and craft messages that resonate with stakeholders at each phase.

Complexity comes with situations such as:

• Failing to differentiate messaging for each stage of the buyer’s journey.
• Displaying inconsistent messaging tone or content across different stages.
• Neglecting to adjust messaging as stakeholders progress through their journey.
• Failing to resonate with stakeholders’ stage-related challenges and goals.
• Missing opportunities to provide relevant information or guidance.
• Focusing solely on acquisition messaging and neglecting post-purchase messaging for customer retention.
  

All these situations lead to weak SaaS messaging and fewer business opportunities.

Stakeholders

Defining an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is key to crafting ultra-personalized brand and product messages.

However, the complexity arises when there’s an enterprise ICP and SaaS teams must consider different stakeholders within a target company, such as decision-makers, software researchers, and users.

Additionally, they may encounter the challenge of targeting different departments and job positions, each requiring personalized communication.

This aspect adds another layer of complexity to SaaS messaging, as teams may commit errors such as:

• Treating all stakeholders as a homogeneous group.
• Use a one-size-fits-all messaging approach.
• Crafting messages that are not relevant or compelling to their respective audiences.
• Lacking alignment between messages and stakeholders’ priorities.
• Focusing solely on communicating with decision-makers and neglecting end users who may influence the decision-making process.
• Underestimating the importance of building rapport and trust with different stakeholder groups through personalized and relevant messaging efforts.
  

As a result, teams may fail to connect with their leads, prospects, and customers.

Teams

In one way or another, all SaaS teams are involved in crafting SaaS messages. For example:

• SaaS executives may publish brand or product messages through their personal social media accounts.
• The product team may inform users about software updates, improvements, and bug fixes.
• Marketing professionals create multiple assets that aim to increase the brand’s authority, promote the software, and generate high-quality leads.
• The sales reps engage with prospects through discovery and demo calls.
• Customer support reps craft multiple SaaS messages that aim to take users from discovering the software to achieving their first results.
• The community team engage with forum members and discuss brand, product, or industry topics.
  

In other words, multiple people are involved in the communication of their company. And that’s an undeniable sign of high complexity as each person may:

• Use different terms for the same meaning
• Have divergent understandings regarding a specific term
• Fail to communicate truthfully because of delayed access to updates.
• Interpret messaging guidelines differently
• Fail to adhere to established brand voice guidelines
• Display messaging inconsistencies
• Apply inconsistent tone or style in messaging
• Present conflicting information across different channels
• Convey mixed or contradictory messages to the audience
  

This may lead to serious messaging issues, decreasing the brand’s trust and alienating people.

Assets

Finally, SaaS messaging involves multiple assets, such as:

• Articles (how-to, comparison posts, knowledge base entries)
• Downloadables (templates, checklists)
• eBooks, reports, research papers, white papers
• Case studies and testimonials
• Product tours and video demos
• Sales presentations
• User onboarding materials
• And more
  

Creating these assets involves a high degree of complexity, as SaaS teams run the risk of:

• Using generic language that fails to connect with audiences
• Presenting outdated or inaccurate information
• Providing inadequate or confusing materials
• Failing to address common pain points
• Delivering little to no value through existing assets
• Applying inconsistent tone or style
  

As a result, they may undermine brand credibility and trust, impacting the company’s business results.

Final note

Although crucial to a company’s growth, SaaS messaging involves high complexity. This complexity stems from different elements, which can be unpredictable and difficult to coordinate.

Without navigating this complexity effectively, SaaS companies risk failing to communicate with leads, prospects, and customers, taking a big hit on their revenue.

Read the entire series on SaaS messaging:

• 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 Map Your Audience for Messaging Personalization (part 4/6)
• How to Maintain Continuity in Your Dialogue with Audiences (part 5/6)
• How to Ensure the Quality in Your SaaS Messaging (part 6/6)