Fixing your messy positioning will solve a number of your SaaS headaches

When I start working with early-stage SaaS companies, more than half the time the core issues with lack of engagement don’t really tend to stem from the wrong channels, small budgets, or even a lack of content.

It's more often than not issues with positioning. With some of the key problems:

• They’re not being clear on who they’re for as there’s no clear ICP mapped out or there are multiple personas, each completely different from each other.

• They’re being too broad on the problem they solve as they’re trying to solve a whole bunch of pain points and to see what sticks

• They sound just like everyone else in SaaS trying to market everything to everyone

If you’re in the early stages, it’s always so tempting to go into full on go-to-market mode, scaling campaigns, ads, emails, socials as fast as you can. But if your core messaging isn’t nailed, it will be obvious in early signals and then all you’re doing is marketing confusion and wasting your marketing budget.

And that’s because positioning your company in an often crowded marketplace isn't just a made up myth the experts tell you that you need, it’s actually a foundational exercise to fuel your future growth.

How can you fix messy positioning?

As previously mentioned, messy positioning usually comes from being too broad, too product-focused, or trying to say too much to too many people. You need to get back to basics: 

• Who’s your ideal customer really?

• What pain are they actively trying to solve for them?

• Why are you the obvious choice vs the category leaders?

Go back to all of the work you originally did when defining your ICP and reread all of the customer interviews you conducted. What were your customers actually saying and is this different with fresh eyes to what you initially thought? Does your messaging reflect this? Look at what your website says and think about whether it is obvious who you are for?

The key is to try and zoom out as much as possible and only look at the customer. If the persona has changed since you’ve been in market, speak to them and find out why - it could be that your original work has evolved, which means your messaging also needs to evolve.

Get that right, and suddenly everything flows across your sales decks to website copy, and to paid ads.

And it will be obvious that your positioning was the root cause all along.

If you're unsure of where to start and need help with some clarity on your ICP and positioning work, get in touch and we can chat through to see where you are and whether a fractional project could help.