đ Why less is more in SaaS; Slack kills it with content; The dark side of data...
If youâre reading this, we know youâre a founder, CEO, or involved with a startup in a large enough capacity that you get the struggles of the grind. Only a small percentage of businesses succeed, and to be one of the rare winners, you have to outwork the rest. Thatâs stressful. But outworking doesnât necessarily mean doing more - this week weâd suggest you take Felik Eyserâs (or Paul Ruddâs) advice and focus on doing less.
As your SaaS doctor, weâre prescribing this healthy dose of startup minimalism to offer concrete methods which will simplify your workday, and maybe provide a sigh of relief for those wrapping up at 2:00 a.m.
đ If itâs not already sitting on your nightstand, David Skokâs legendary deck on SaaS drivers and metrics is a must read. To get to the good stuff, key SaaS economic principles are explained in more detail in this separate post, or you can jump straight to slide 14 for our favorite marketing funnel analysis.
đźď¸ As seen above, there are countless metrics to be weighed and measured in SaaS - the trick is finding which is the best indicator of your business' success. And while no two businesses are exactly the same, growth, sales efficiency, churn, and cash burn will always paint a fairly accurate picture of your companyâs health.
đ We feel obligated to say weâre not complete metrics cheerleaders. There is a dark side to the âdata drivenâ craze because in a startupâs early stages, itâs more important to focus on the big picture. Obsessing over your LTV:CAC ratio before having a clear pricing strategy and niche is putting the cart before the horse.
âď¸ When it comes to content, few do it better than Slack, so weâre more than happy to take a page out of their book. A tl;dr for the lazy: speak clearly and be polite, donât be afraid to repeat yourself, and use frequent, authoritative content to build trust. Check out author Herbert Luiâs analysis on Slackâs homepage iterations if you want to go deeper down the content rabbit hole.
â Weâd be remiss to not mention branding in the marketing equation. And no, brand isnât just your logo and mission statement. Itâs your customerâs perception of your business, the gut feeling they get when using your product, and what they tell other people about it. Your companyâs brand should shape your messaging and content strategy. If you werenât sold on Slackâs guide, hereâs another great one.
đ Business 2 Communityâs Marketing Training report had no shortage of juicy deets. SaaS, B2B, and Ecommerce lead all industries in perceived marketing abilities. So if youâre a marketer in a B2B SaaS Ecommerce business, it might be a good time to ask for that raise. And while itâs no shock that bigger companies have more employee specialization, we learned this leads to a higher level of confidence in their own abilities. But keep your chin up SMB employees, many (ourselves included) recognize the unique skill set of âscrappersâ.
April 16-19, Boston: Content Marketing Conference is great resource for your content team, and they specialize in comedy (you can see why weâre big fans).
June 4-5, New York: SaaStock features some of our favorites like Patrick Campbell (Price Intelligently), Sujan Patel (Ramp Ventures), and Nathan Latka (The Latka Agency).
September 12, San Francisco: SaaStr Scale is a quick one day of top SaaS speakers with content to help you scale. Oh, and you have to apply to attend. Letâs see how the scarcity tactic works out.
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