A Comprehensive Guide to Positioning a SaaS Product

I still remember my first marketing lecture during my MBA. I entered the lecture brimming with excitement. The first thing our professor said was that if you want to understand the core of marketing, then read ‘Positioning — The Battle for your Mind’ by Al Ries and Jack Trout. That’s how I was introduced to the concept of Positioning and was amazed at how it can make or break a company.

Fast forward a few years- we realized at Hevo that we had hit the product-market fit and reached the continuous cycle of substantial growth. It was time to create the Positioning for our product and build our identity.

We started researching how to approach Positioning for SaaS products and realized that the concept in the book ‘Positioning’ was not very applicable to us. It gave us a brief idea of what we needed to do, but was not highly relevant to today’s tech world, especially the SaaS market, and did not discuss how to position the product. That’s how we started the journey of creating a playbook and framework to position our SaaS product, Hevo.

In our initial research, we realized that there was very little knowledge available on how to position SaaS products. The 2 key resources we found were the book Obviously Awesome by April Dunford, and a few Medium articles by Jamie Catherine Barnett.

Taking this knowledge as the base, we started building our approach and playbook on SaaS Positioning.

Step 1 — Define the Framework

The most helpful framework was by Jamie Catherine Barnett. She defined positioning as the union of 3 key parameters i.e. Customer Need, White Space, and Unique Capabilities.

As we contemplated this, all 3 were highly relevant to us. However, we tweaked this framework and added another parameter — ‘Company Vision’. This is from Simon Sinek’s concept- ‘Start with Why’ Why we exist and our company’s vision is essential to us, and we want it to be expressed and visible in our positioning.

A few factors uniquely differentiate us in our landscape, but there are also a few factors that would be our strength over others. We wanted our strengths also to be part of our positioning strategy, so we tweaked the parameter ‘Unique Capabilities’ to ‘Unique Capabilities and Strengths.’

Let’s take a look at our final positioning framework:

You can use this positioning framework for your SaaS product as well. Additionally, you can tweak it according to your market and priorities. Make sure you don’t have more than 5 parameters.

Step 2 — Define Required Data Points

Once we had our parameters decided, the next step was to list down all the data points we needed within each parameter to map our positioning.

For this, we contemplated each parameter and decided their respective factors and elements we needed to consider. Following are the elements you can gather data on for each parameter.

Data Points Under Customer Needs — This can include elements like your target audience persona, characteristics, goals, pain points, and more.

Data Points Under Unique Capabilities & Strengths — This can include your product’s key features, strengths, value proposition.

Data Points Under White Space — In this you can explore various gaps in the market like solution gap, value gap, use case gap, target audience gap, and more.

Data Points Under Company Vision — This includes your organization’s overarching values, the why statement, and future plan.

With all this information, you would be able to extract and map a positioning strategy.

Step 3 — Research

The next step was to research to fill in all those data points. Based on the pointers we mentioned in Step 2, we planned our research process, i.e. required types of research and channels/sources.

Following are the types of research we did:

Competitive Research

We wanted to understand our competitor’s positioning, features, pricing, strengths/weaknesses, target accounts, and more in competitive research.

The data from competitor research helped us fill in the pointers required for 2 parameters, i.e., Unique Capabilities & Strengths and White Space.

Customer Research

We wanted to understand our target audience, i.e., their needs, pain points, and goals. We also went through our customers’ feedback and experience of using the product.

Customer research data was used to fill in the pointers required for 2 parameters, i.e., Customer Needs and Unique Capabilities & Strengths.

Industry Research

Industry research is to understand what market leaders, thought leaders, and media are talking about your industry. This data was used to fill in the White Space parameter.

Leadership Research

Leadership research is to understand the Company’s Values and Vision. The positioning strategy should account for the company’s why and the future plan so that the positioning is relevant for the near future.

In this, we had discussions with top leadership and co-founders to understand why they started the company, the vision, and how it has changed with time.

The more detailed your research is, the better and more apt ideas you will be able to extract for your positioning. So don’t try to fast forward this process!

Step 4 — Research Overview and Feedback

Once we did the research and collected all the required data points, we created an overview of the research. This helped us map everything necessary in context to Positioning and explore multiple positioning strategy options by getting all the relevant information on a single page.

Following is the overview framework we used:

We explored each dimension from different angles, i.e., focused approach, generic approach, competitors’ positioning, and our current characteristics.

If we take an example of a focused approach, then the most basic option could be the company’s size, i.e., small, medium, or enterprise. With this approach, we were able to explore each dimension thoroughly.

Once we had the complete research output in a single sheet, we shared it with all the teams in our organization i.e., sales, product, tech, customer success, solutions, and others, for their feedback. Everyone in the organization should be aligned to the positioning strategy.

In the end, a few positioning options would be automatically highlighted. Those would be your shortlisted positioning options.

Step 5 — Designing Positioning Statement and Canvas

Now, we had the shortlisted options on our positioning strategy, agreed upon by all teams in the organization. The next stage was figuring out how we would state positioning in a simple, clear, and easily understandable format.

For this, we used the most common positioning statement format.

For {target audience}, {brand name} is a {market category}, which provides {1–2 main benefits}, unlike {primary competitor}, {product name} is {differentiator from primary competitor}

However, positioning strategy is not just a statement. It comprises many factors. Thus, to encompass all those factors, we created our positioning canvas and used the framework provided by April Dunford.

Following is the positioning canvas we used:

Step 6 — Enabling Positioning with Communication Guide

Creating a positioning strategy is only the start of the end game, which is building your brand’s unique identity and awareness. The positioning strategy gives a framework for what we need to communicate. The next step is to enable this positioning.

All kinds of communication, including sales pitches, marketing emails, or talent acquisition, should follow the positioning guidelines.

“Consistently communicating and creating content around your positioning strategy builds a strong positioning in the market.”

We decided to create an extensive Hevo Communication Guide, share it with everyone in the organization, and make it part of our onboarding process. The guide’s objective is to enable everyone in the organization to have a common understanding of Hevo’s positioning and maintain consistent communications across channels and teams. And activate the positioning strategy across channels and grow our brand.

Final Takeaway

Positioning is the key to growing your brand and gaining the attention of your target group. The positioning will further boost your demand in the SaaS landscape and optimize the conversion rate.

Creating a positioning strategy is the foundation for your brand. Once the foundation is established, the next stage is to grow on the foundation. Once you have established your positioning strategy, create a plan on how you will activate it across channels.

Also, positioning is not a one-time activity. It’s a continuous process that evolves based on the product roadmap, latest data, and market conditions. Develop a process of going back to the positioning drawing board every 6 months and examine whether you need to update your positioning strategy.