SaaS Strategists,

We, humans, are visual beings.

We won’t remember numbers, boring details, and metrics.

But what we will remember,

Is a visual representation, an image, a person.

Or how something made us feel.

One effective approach that has gained traction in recent years is tying faces to software brands in order to increase sales and build trust.

Today we dive into the strategy all big SaaS brands utilize nowadays.

Let’s check out how, together 👇️ 

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👨 Tie a face to your SaaS

Our subconscious recognizes someone before we do.

Imagine you’re walking down the street and see Cristiano Ronaldo walk by.

You’ll recognize him immediately.

Why?

Because he’s been all over the internet.

Same with all of the big brands out there:

Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Porsche…

These brands took years to establish themselves on the market.

But what if you’re an anonymous brand?

Just started, 20 paying customers, zero to none SEO strategy…

How can you increase your discoverability in that case?

If only there was a strategy so simple, yet so effective…

Well, if you have the $$$, it’s easy to hire Cristiano Ronaldo to be the face of your product.

If not, there’s this other solution:

You become the face.

Zoom

It’s 2020.

Midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, starts to utilize this strategy.

Eric started showing up on live webinars, showcasing his product to the world.

He went into the world showing from first-hand experience how using Zoom can help us run meetings normally, regardless of being in the biggest pandemics in the world.

This helped humanize the brand and build trust, which ultimately led to an increased adoption rate of Zoom and an increase in revenue.

Feastables

As mentioned previously, big brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and KFC took years to establish their brands on the market.

But in 2023 they face one of their biggest competitor yet.

And it’s not a food chain.

It’s a single person.

A person that took 6 years to become the largest youtube star on the planet, with more than 170 million YT subscribers.

Yes, it’s MrBeast.

You see, Jimmy (MrBeast), took years to establish his online presence.

And it was one of the highest-leverage activities one can do.

1. Establish a strong online brand presence

2. Release products under your brand name

3. ???

4. Profit!

Simple as that.

Not directly a SaaS, but I wanted to take a look at Feastables - his Chocolate brand

Imagine you’re a 12-year-old kid, walking down the aisle at Walmart.

And you see a chocolate bar with the MrBeast logo.

BADABING BADABOOM.

Immediately your subconscious recognizes the logo before you do.

Now you tie it to his brand, and how his videos made you feel.

No Coca-Cola ad can replace this.

It has already been seen a million times.

This is something new & fresh.

So instinctively you’ll want to try it.

Apart from Jimmy’s face, what makes Feastables marketing so good is that he is naming the chocolate after popular memes.

In this case, it’s DEEZ NUTS.

Although it’s funny, his marketing allows him to play with this.

Your product might be a bit more sophisticated, and you won’t be able to pull this off.

But there are still valuable lessons here.

If MrBeast were to launch his SaaS competitor right now, some companies would be in big trouble. 👀 

Slack

Opposite to MrBeast, there are still tactics you can utilize in order to tie a face to your brand and build trust.

For example, Slack used images of real people, including their own employees, in their marketing campaigns and website.

This approach conveyed a sense of authenticity and relatability, making it easier for users to connect with the brand and adopt their team collaboration software.

Look through your user base

You don’t have to pay a celebrity to promote your product.

You can simply go through your user base.

Let’s say your software is used by some product manager at Apple.

This could be a big leverage as well!

You can tie your software with the Apple brand, with something along the lines of:

“We help Apple, decrease their meeting times by 36%”.

Getting in touch with the user is even better.

You could get his first-hand feedback.

A friendly reminder to go through your user base & see if there are some users with some big juicy brand names that you can use.

Other examples

Nespresso used George Clooney as their face.

Volvo created the iconic ‘epic split’ video with Van Damme.

Apple collaborated with Samuel L. Jackson for their Siri commercials.

Microsoft partnered with Jerry Seinfeld in a series of ads to promote Windows.

The list goes on…

And there it is.

One cool strategy you can attack from multiple angles.

Whether hiring a familiar face or just utilizing your existing user base.

This strategy can be adapted to your needs.

Let me know if & how did you utilize it.

Would love to know!

🔝 Top Tweets

Here are the 2 top tweets from this week:

🔥 SaaS Fire

SaaS products so good they'll light up your week:

Record is an AI Powered Customer Support Layer for B2B SaaS.

Folio is an interactive software for startups creating captivating product demos.

💡Idea of the Week

Here’s the SaaS idea of the week:

This SaaS product uses AI to segment customer data and optimize marketing efforts for businesses. The software can analyze customer behavior and preferences to identify the most relevant segments and recommend personalized messaging and campaigns. It can also provide insights on potential customer churn and retention strategies. It can also provide recommendations on how to personalize marketing messages for each segment and predict the likelihood of customer churn.

Pros

• Improved targeting: The Customer Segmentation Software allows marketers to target specific customer segments with personalized marketing messages, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions

• Increased ROI: By targeting the right customers with the right messages, marketers can achieve better ROI and maximize their marketing budget

Cons

• Complexity: Some marketers may find the software complex to use and require training to understand the AI algorithms and data analysis tools

• Data privacy concerns: Collecting and analyzing customer data can raise concerns about data privacy and security, particularly with new regulations like GDPR

Please answer the poll below.

It helps me understand which type of content I should be putting out more.

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Hope this issue of SaaS Strats gave you the material to point you in the right direction for your next marketing campaign.

If you liked this one, I’ve still got a lot to cover.

I’ll see you next Thursday.

Ognjen Gatalo

Chief SaaS Strategist ☁️