Author: teamsstepup

What can you do to get your company its market share. And then, how do make that piece of cake keep growing?

That’s what this article will show you how to do. Let’s dive right in!

Knowing what your customers need and how to provide it better than competitors is the key. To make sure your company stands out and truly wows your customers, you must analyze the competition.

This is called competitor analysis and it involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of other businesses in your industry.

A methodical approach to evaluating the competition ensures a well thought out foundation for the multiple stages that follow in your GTM strategy. B2B competitive analysis involves taking the time to study your competition and understand their market strategies so that you can make informed decisions about how to effectively target your own ideal customers.

By understanding your competitors you will gain valuable insight into the market’s needs, and be able to craft a strategy that will give you a truly competitive edge.

Let’s take a closer look at what it is and why competitive analysis is key for a successful product launch, as well as how to properly address this component within your GTM strategy.

 

The wrong approach to B2B competitive analysis

Let’s get this out of the way because as much as you might know this, it is very challenging to not do. The wrong approach to competitive analysis is looking for what your competitors are doing well and try to emulate it (and put your own spin on it of course).

While this strategy may appear to be a safe route, (“seems to be working fine for them”) it usually leads to mediocre or even embarrassing outcomes in the long run. Not only does this approach leave you no better off than your competitors, but attempting to imitate them will likely make you look worse rather than better in the public eye.

Instead of looking for ways to replicate success, focus on creating original strategies and ideas that set you apart from the competition. This approach will show off your unique value and help you stand out from the crowd.

 

What should your competitive analysis outputs look like?

Competitive analysis is a powerful tool to gain great insights into your competition. Its main outputs include determining product strengths and weaknesses, understanding competitor positioning, and examining the channels they use to reach their target customers. It can help give you an edge in the competitive landscape, so that you can find the opportunities to stand out from your competition.

Let’s have a look at what these actually mean:

Product strengths and weaknesses

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your product or service compared to those offered by other competitors is the most essential part of the analysis. Evaluating these differences can help you determine what value your offering brings to the market and reveal areas where you have advantages over your competitors. Additionally, by closely examining what areas you fall short in comparison to another business, you can determine where improvements are needed in order to remain competitive. This can be done through customer feedback, competitor research, and industry benchmarking.

To simplify we can use these basic questions for each competitor:

Internally, what are they really good at? what are they not good at?

Which opportunities does the market offer them?
What are potential threats for them in the market?

Positioning insights

Examining your competitors’ positioning strategies can provide invaluable insight. Look for their main focal points and identify any potential areas they may be overlooking in terms of their approach to positioning statements, social media presence, and customer testimonials. Understanding how they position themselves in the market will help you better understand their target customers and what makes them unique. Additionally, it will give you an idea of what ideas and values they are trying to convey to their audience, allowing you to craft a more compelling message that resonates with potential customers.

Content and Channels

Understanding how your competitors use various channels to reach and engage with their audiences, can provide invaluable insight for your own business. Analyzing their activity on all channels relevant to your audience can help you determine what types of content are producing optimal or poor results. Additionally, identifying which channels are being underutilized by your competitors can open up opportunities for you to expand your own presence in those areas. By taking the time to assess the various strategies employed by your competitors, you can capitalize on those insights and gain an advantage over them.

In evaluating a content marketing program, you want to assess the types of content produced (blog posts, ebooks, case studies etc.), the publishing cadence , and measure the performance.

You can measure website content in SEO performance,
Which keywords do they rank for?
Which Keywords are bring in the most traffic?

Social channels performance can be measured by looking at reach, engagement etc.

 

How to do competitive analysis effectively

Identify the most relevant competitors

Finding the right competitors is critically important for businesses in competitive places like the B2B sphere. Digging up useful information about your website when compared to bigger players in your market can be daunting and disheartening at times. For that reason, it’s essential to be realistic about who you decide to face off against. Bear in mind that you can always update your rivals after a certain amount of time if you feel ready to move on from your existing adversaries.

Two simple starting points:

Google Search – A simple way for you to identify good competitors is just to Google your target keywords.

Specific market analysis tools – Try tools or platforms like,  G2 or Semrush market explorer.

Join professional communities – Joining professional communities that your target audience are likely to be part of allows you to see which vendors are being recommended for the same problem you solve. (This method can be a gold mine for a whole bunch of valuable information beyond just who your competitors are).

 

SEO competitive analysis gives you more than SEO

We mentioned analysing your competitors SEO above for content but it’s important understand that SEO competitive analysis gives much more than just insights into search engine optimization. It can provide a comprehensive analysis which takes many different aspects into account to give you a robust picture of your go-to-market (GTM) strategy’s performance in the market. This analysis can help identify both opportunities and potential weaknesses that can be used to formulate and adjust strategies for success by understanding the values, preferences and needs of the target audience.

Additionally, SEO competitive analysis allows you to gain insight into what your competitors are doing with regards to their own marketing campaigns, giving an advantage when formulating new strategies to compete in the same markets. Understanding such data helps companies craft plans tailored specifically for their target customers needs while capitalizing on the opportunities that exist from the gaps left by competitors.

 

What part does the competitive analysis have in the GTM strategy?

When it comes to constructing a winning GTM strategy, it is essential to take a step-by-step approach as every layer relies heavily upon the prior. This is especially crucial for the competitive analysis step. Let’s explore the steps of the GTM strategy and underline where the competitive analysis step comes in the order.

Identify your target audience

The first stage of the workflow is defining the total addressable market, which includes identifying your ideal customer profile at the company level as well as determining who are the relevant stakeholders within that company. This information provides important context for later steps in the process, such as understanding their buying journey and formulating actionable strategies for success.

Breakdown Your Buyer’s Journey

The next stage requires you to detail the stakeholder’s buying journey by mapping out how they interact with your products or services from start to finish. By understanding their needs, pain points and expectations clearly, you can create marketing content and sales processes that cater specifically to them for maximum efficacy.

competitive analysis

Afterwards comes competitive analysis which helps you gain insight into what your competition is doing and how successful they are being at meeting their business goals. Leveraging this information will help you understand both your strengths and weaknesses when compared to those of your competitors while giving you guidance on which markets or sectors might be better suited for your products or services in terms of risk minimization.

Value proposition, messaging, demand generation and KPIs

Finally, once you have completed competitor analysis you can move forward with completing the final pieces of your GTM strategy: value proposition formulation, messaging development, demand generation strategies formulation, as well as setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) that will allow you track progress towards targets throughout the entire process.

Following a structured approach when creating a B2B GTM strategy is essential in order to ensure that all required tasks are taken into consideration in order to achieve desired results efficiently and effectively. Additionally it can provide valuable insights from competitive research allowing businesses leverage such knowledge when crafting plans tailored specifically for its target audience’s needs.

Get that piece of cake and make it grow!

Analysing the competition is essential for devising an effective GTM strategy that will ensure a successful product launch. With a comprehensive approach to evaluating the competition, you can build a strong foundation for your strategy and increase your chances of success. The payoff of this effort – new customers and a larger slice of the cake – makes it well worth the investment. By taking a methodical approach and investing in a competitive analysis, you set your company up for success and expand your market share.

Why SaaS Companies Can Make A Bigger Impact with Content Marketing

Growing a SaaS business requires organic content marketing – not only because it is essential for any company but especially true of those in the SaaS industry.

The reason content has the potential to have a bigger impact on a SaaS buyer audience is due to how a single SaaS product can impact the business functionality.

When we truly grasp what happens as a result of that, it helps us understand how to communicate with our target audience on a level that gets through. This is in essence what we want to achieve with our content marketing.

Creating Effective SaaS Content is to Empathize with your Buyer

When we think of our buyer, we must consider how high the stakes are for them. Where and how does this purchase affect them? The one responsible for introducing and implementing your SaaS solution to their company has a lot to prove, potentially lose, or if done right, gain.

The first front is on the business level. A problem needed to be solved, something needed to be fixed and your buyer is in the position to be the hero. To management, they want to prove that they can be relied upon to find the best solution to that problem. To accomplish this, they want to validate the value of the purchase by proving ROI for the business’s bottom line.

The second front is with the ones who will use the SaaS product, the buyers’ coworkers. A new SaaS tool can mean a lot of change for how some in the company go about doing their jobs on a daily basis.

So our buyer bears the responsibility of ensuring that this change is a positive one for their coworkers and ultimately makes their jobs easier.

The third and perhaps most important impact on your SaaS buyer is how it benefits their professional growth and career. It presents an opportunity for leadership experience. All the benefits to the business from using your SaaS product can be credited to your SaaS buyer who introduced and implemented it.

It is so important that your SaaS content strategy addresses these needs. For your target audience, who constantly look to educate themselves on these fronts, it presents a great opportunity for your SaaS brand to serve as a fountain of knowledge to help your audience.

As the provider of the solution, the SaaS company is naturally positioned as a trusted source. The ones who use your SaaS product will rely on the content you create as their primary source of information and knowledge.

Helping your customers with valuable content in the above areas is essential for cultivating a devoted clientele, forming your brand as a trusted resource of information, and attaining long-term revenue.

 

Content Ideation

Here is how you begin to map out what to write about: The Go-To-Market strategy should be your guide to your brand story and value proposition. When done correctly, the GTM strategy maps out the buyer’s journey related to your product and what they need or want to learn at each stage until they are ready to buy.

Now we’ll explore a few techniques for generating unlimited content ideas that will rank for SEO and address your buyer’s pain points. 

This will serve as your content topics outline, dividing it by the stages of the buyer’s journey. 

Using the buyer’s journey, you can write questions your buyer needs to answer to advance to the next stage of their journey.

 

Identify Your Buyer’s Burning Questions

Join communities that your buyer is part of like Slack channels and Discord.

Visit the platforms they might go to get answers to their pressing questions like Quora.

Make lists and categorize the questions that are relevant to your product. From these questions you can extract keywords. 

Collecting the keywords that are relevant to your target audience’s questions should be your first step in your keyword research. 

 

Competitor Analysis: Which Gap Are You Filling?

Before creating content, it is always wise to conduct a thorough analysis of competitors. The first thing to look for is where to steer clear of topics that already have too much content written about them.

However, it is critical to be careful with your approach to how you look at your competitor’s digital activity.

What you should not do: decide to write based on what your competitors are writing about.

Instead, you want to be strategic, finding the opportunities created by gaps in your competitor’s activity.

You can do this by using an SEO tool like Semrush to analyze their blog content. Which keywords your competitors have a strong ranking for, will not be the ones to focus on at an early stage. The keywords that have low rankings and do not bring your competitor’s website low organic traffic present you with an opportunity to fill the gap, and that is where you should begin.

 

Map Content Types and Prioritize Your Content Plan

Many content marketers do not properly distinguish between content types.

If you want to make the most of your content marketing efforts it is essential to understand the proper place for each piece of content.

• Community building – podcasts, discussing hot topics on social platforms
• Lead Generation – guides and white papers
• Search – Blog and product pages created for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

So how should a SaaS company prioritize these in their content strategy?

Social media is a valuable tool for building brand awareness, building a community and engaging with customers. As a B2B SaaS startup, your SEO-based blog should be the top priority as it will generate sustainable traffic and leads, establish authority and thought leadership, and create content that converts over the long term.

 

Why You Should Prioritize SEO-Focused Content 

Investing in SEO-based content marketing for your B2B SaaS startup is a crucial decision you can make to ensure long-term success. Unlike social media, which requires unnecessary expenses to reach a broader audience, SEO-based content can bring organic traffic and leads without the need for continuous investment. Investing even modestly in SEO early on will not only reap big rewards but also become more powerful over time. Make sure you prioritize this part of your content marketing strategy today!

 

Formulate Your Content Plan with SEO Research 

Strategically planning your content creation with SEO-centered pieces based on the buyer journey stages not only assists you in choosing keywords but also provides a clear comprehension of what type of material is meant for every stage and enables you to create realistic objectives.

The Content Marketing Institute’s 2022 survey revealed that the greatest planning challenge content marketers face is in creating content that appeals to the different stages of the buyer’s journey.

Let’s make sense of what defines the content at each stage of our SaaS buyer’s journey: 

Explore Their Challenges And Solutions In The Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage of the B2B SaaS buyer journey, potential customers are just beginning to explore their challenges and search for solutions. At this stage, it’s important to create content that raises awareness of your brand by addressing common pain points or challenges that your potential customers are facing and then educating on how to solve them.

Awareness stage content will focus on search terms with the highest search volume, that have informational intent, and will see the lowest number of conversions.

Content in the awareness stage can convert readers with educational content assets such as eBooks and white papers and webinars. 

 

How Your SaaS Product Solves These Problems/Opportunities

The consideration stage of the B2B SaaS buyer’s journey is the point where potential customers have identified a problem or opportunity and are looking for information to help them evaluate possible solutions. At this stage, your content should focus on providing information that helps potential customers to understand their options and make informed decisions.

Good content for this stage will compare your product to your competitors. Highlight your strengths and weaknesses in relation to other solutions available in the market. This can help potential customers to understand the unique value proposition of your product and how it compares to other options.

Consideration stage content will be based on search terms with medium search volume and ‘light’ buying intent.

 

Content for the Decision Stage That Converts Demos

Bottom of the funnel content at the decision stage should be made of search terms with lower search volume and higher buying intent. Use long tail keywords that address a specific part of a larger challenge.

Lower volume keywords can help you reach your target audience and draw relevant traffic to your website. As they are less competitive.

blog posts that rank for decision stage keyword terms outperform blog posts going after larger volume keywords.

keywords that most SaaS businesses are bidding on in paid ads like ______solution, ______software, ________tool.

Many of your competitors probably make the mistake of only focusing on these in their paid search campaigns, and therefore leave them out of the organic content strategy. That is exactly why this is where you will have an opportunity to get ahead.

 

Remember: Your SaaS Content Strategy should be Guided by Your GTM Strategy

Through every step of creating your content marketing strategy and every step of its execution, it is important to ensure that your content reflects the GTM strategy so that your unique selling proposition to the ideal customer profile is clearly communicated and consequently distinguishes you from other contenders in the sector.

When you create a SaaS content strategy that is aligned with your go-to-market strategy, you will guide your potential buyers through their journey of discovering, liking, and trusting your brand! And they will inevitably want to see how your SaaS product works. 

 

With 90% of startups estimated to fail, there’s a high probability that an early-stage startup won’t survive its first year.

Why do startups fail so often?

As it turns out, the answer lies in marketing. As much as 70% of startup failures can be attributed to ineffective marketing strategy or poor execution.

That’s why in order to form the right marketing strategy, it’s important that early-stage Startup companies shift their approach as to what marketing should achieve at this early stage.

 

Why So Many Startups Fail Because of Marketing

Today there are dozens of good marketing strategies for startups out there. Some are geared for a minimal marketing budget others for making as much noise as possible.

The reality is, that even if these marketing strategies with all the fancy marketing tactics are executed to perfection, they will not achieve much until problem market fit has been proven.

To be clear, you can grow before you have figured out your problem market fit. Envisioning the sweet sound of media buzz and heralded demand for your product may feel like success.

And that’s why companies with large budgets pour money into PR, social media, content marketing, with SEO, blog posts and email campaigns. But that growth eventually proves unsustainable. 

But the quickest way to risk your startup’s demise is by scaling too early before having proof of the market problem that you solve.

 

What Early-Stage Startup Marketing Needs to Focus On

Every business needs to adjust their marketing strategy based on their maturity stage.

Startup founders will romanticize the days when having a marketing budget was only a fantasy. Back when lean operations relied solely on creative problem-solving in order to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

After MVP is proven, startups look for their first market validation via someone in their inner circle. Either trying the product themselves or connecting to someone who tries the product (usually as a favor).

Even after gaining a few of these ‘early adapters’, sooner or later the pressure comes to prove that the market agrees if the product actually solves something that they’re willing to pay for.

The only focus marketing should have at this stage is to decipher who that market is and why.

 

The 3 Stages of a Business According to Sangram Vajre

Sangram Vajre, co-founder of Terminus and author of “ABM is B2B,” defines the three stages of a business as follows:

1. Problem Market Fit: In this stage, a business identifies and defines the problem that it wants to solve for its customers. The focus is on understanding the pain points of the target audience and developing a solution that meets their needs. 
2. Product Market Fit: In this stage, the business has a working solution to the problem and is focused on refining and improving the product to meet the needs of the target market. This stage is all about testing and validation, and making sure that the product is delivering real value to customers. 
3. Platform Market Fit: In this stage, the business has a fully-formed product and is focused on scaling the solution and expanding its reach to new markets. This stage involves developing a platform that makes it easy for others to use the product, building partnerships, and finding new ways to generate revenue. 

These three stages are critical for businesses to go through in order to be successful in the long term. By understanding and focusing on each of these stages, a business can develop a strong foundation that will help it grow and scale over time.

 

How Does go-to-market (GTM) strategy fit in?

A GTM strategy leaves no part of your product launch to guessing. Every step of the way is mapped out.

In a GTM strategy you will detail your target market, define how your product brings them value, map their customer journey, workout the messaging guidelines, the exact marketing channels you’ll use, how much budget to allocate and what the goals look like for each individually.

We talk about how to build a winning GTM strategy in 2023 here.

 

Build A GTM Strategy According to The Objectives Of  Your Business Stage

The company’s Go To Market (GTM) strategy changes as the company progresses from stage to stage. The GTM strategy is a comprehensive plan for bringing a product or service to market, and as a company grows and evolves, its GTM strategy must also evolve.

Navigating the vast array of marketing tactics and channels can be intimidating. To best leverage your marketing efforts, so that they achieve the objective of your company’s business stage you need to create a Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy.

Implementing your GTM strategy should streamline the processes you use to execute each actionable step. When you streamline your system, executing your strategies becomes straightforward and achievable.

For example, in the Problem Market Fit stage, the focus is on finding the right problem to solve, so the GTM strategy might involve market research, customer interviews, and other forms of customer discovery. In the Product Market Fit stage, the focus is on testing and refining the product, so the GTM strategy might involve customer feedback, beta testing, and other forms of product validation.

In the Platform Market Fit stage, the focus is on scaling and growing the business, so the GTM strategy might involve building a platform, forming partnerships, and expanding into new markets.

In each stage, the company’s GTM strategy must change to meet the new challenges and opportunities that come with growth. By having a flexible and adaptive GTM strategy, a company can maximize its chances of success as it progresses through each stage.