Peep Laja

There's an interactive demo tool wave in B2B SaaS... but who actually enjoys going through those "click here and then click there" demos?

I'm starting to believe those "interactive" demos are not good enough, they ask for too much and the reward is too little.

"But they send leads!"

It's like bidding on your own brand keywords on Google.

The point of those demos is to get an idea of the tool, it's not a full-on tutorial.

A better way: product demo videos on pages

Like these companies https://t.co/FLkpl6567m https://t.co/ttGUo1Tn43 https://t.co/nPexNHr93b

Markets are not fair to smaller businesses. But there is one thing you can do to win.

Big companies keep getting bigger, have more loyalty, have massively more mindshare and word of mouth, rank for more stuff on search engines, attract better talent, and so on. The list of advantages is huge.

Evidence-based marketing suggests that to increase your market share, you have to outspend competitors (excess share of voice).

As a smaller business, you can't do that. You can't win on money - outspending others to get your message out there.

But - you can make your messaging ~3x more effective.

Research from LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and Warc suggests that showing a “promise to the customer” can make your message projection measurably more effective without spending an extra dime.

They analyzed 700 B2B campaigns with lower budgets, and Customer Promise campaigns were 2.8x more likely to increase market share.

As the study's authors put it, this takes your messaging from “nice-to-have” to an essential full-funnel deal-closing advantage.

What is a promise to the customer? It's exactly what you think.

"15 minutes can help you save 15% or more."

It's a promise of a specific outcome. What makes a promise even more attractive is adding emotional appeal.  As Les Binet and Peter Field have pointed out: “In 70% of B2B cases, emotional consideration is of equal or greater importance than rational consideration.”

Three key components of an effective promise, according to the study:

• Highly memorable - emotional, pattern interrupt, bold.
• Genuinely valuable - matches customer desired outcomes.
• 100% deliverable. The customer promise should be actionable and verifiable, ensuring customers can trust the product's claims.

This has implications for both - your ad campaigns AND your home page (100% of would-be buyers will check it out).

Today, fewer than one in five B2B campaigns make a promise. This is your opportunity.

This is not a line of ad copy to write but a strategic messaging issue. What should you as a company promise? Then, communicate it everywhere.

Where to start? ICP research.

Find out their dream outcomes and the obstacles they face getting there. Make a list of the biggest pain points and dream outcomes. Start crafting specific promises around those, and test their appeal with your ICPs (run preference tests for that).

ICP surveys, message tests, and preference tests are your best friends here on your way to that ~3x increase in market share.