The one question that can resolve most marketing dilemmas
It's simple: What kind of brand do you want to build?
On Saturday, a WhatsApp group of marketers I’m part of came alive with a discussion. The point of contention was this: Should we be using illustrations or photographs of real people on our websites?
As usual, this divided opinion, and we had a good conversation, going back and forth on it.
In general, this is a choice that more later stage SaaS companies tend to have to make, but is equally important for early-stage startups. In fact, I would argue that it’s probably more important for early-stage startups. Just not in this particular avatar.
The question
I would broaden the scope of that dilemma, framing it thus: What kind of brand do you want to build?
The answer to this question in SaaS, as in most other things, is that it depends: On whether you are B2B or B2C, whether you are selling to SMB or Enterprises, and so on.
But the question still stands, and needs to be answered: What kind of brand do you want to build?
As marketers, we forget at times that brands are, in the long run, not our decisions; our brands are the perspective the world sees us with.
And in this view, the question becomes: Are we coming across to the world as we would want to? When you frame it this way, the answer is much easier to arrive at.
Capability
In early-stage startups, there is also the question of capability.
In Freshdesk’s early days, we had a senior engineer so good at both design and front-end development that we could raise our standards pretty high (for that time).
However, that’s not the case at every startup. There’s limited time and resources, and you have to understand and prioritise what you want to spend time on. If getting good photographs are easy for you to do, go for it. If you have a good illustrator who can make you stand apart, get her to help. Just make sure you answer that question for yourself: What kind of brand do you want to build?
Grab that low-hanging fruit
But this discussion is not just about using illustrations or photographs, is it?
It’s also about understanding that great website design and copy is easily the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to SaaS marketing.
As the founder of PipeCandy says:
This ties neatly into my thesis that we are in the post-product decade, where a better marketing experience may be something you will have to invest in from the get-go.
The prospect/customer doesn’t care if you are an early-stage startup or someone getting ready to go public. They are used to slick, clean marketing experiences, from which they derive status as users, and if you won’t give it to them, they will look elsewhere.
If you are going to do marketing the hard way: get your engineering and product teams in place, get an MVP out, and then start thinking about marketing, it will mean that demand gen will have to be a hard-fought, slow game, one that you might lose.
But if you want to be a product that has a waiting list and a fan base before you even launch, practically antifragile in terms of early demand gen, marketing will have to start with your engineering and product development.
And even at that stage, when you barely have anything more than the idea, it will be the same question again that will give you the clarity you need: What kind of brand do you want to build?