B2B SaaS Brand: Exploring Beyond Brand Value and Equity

Not any SaaS company can accomplish success without working on the brand, the market presence, and the brand value they share with the potential customers. Launching a SaaS product brings so many challenges, which means a perfect design and strategically implemented SEO and content marketing tactics aren’t always guaranteeing success. 

So, to successfully build your B2B SaaS brand and spread your mission, your product is not enough. You need to represent many other things to gain customers’ trust, including your brand value and brand equity or the overall brand identity you’re creating. 

Knowing that we introduced two new terms, we’ll first explain them to you and then explore what’s beyond them.

What is Brand Value?

Brand value, in general, is the monetary worth of your brand if you’re about to sell it or offer to another company to acquire it. It includes your name, logo, brand identity, and products or services, or, in this case, the complete SaaS product and all the features it’s known for. In general, brand value consists of elements like product/service quality, customer experience, brand reputation, and, eventually, the emotional connection customers have with it.

We can say that the brand value is also the amount you spend to design, execute, and promote the brand itself, which surely contributes to the overall value. Or, if we simplify it, we can say that it’s only the monetary value estimated by you or the ones who are interested in buying or acquiring your brand.

What is Brand Equity?

Brand equity is the social value of your brand, i.e., the way the consumers and customers perceive it. It represents the strength and influence of a brand within its target market. 

The factors that contribute to brand equity would be brand recognition and association, loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness, brand trust, and personality, how it’s different from similar ones, and the overall market position. 

Brand value also plays a huge role in brand equity. Still, it’s not determined by the company that owns the brand but the way consumers see it. When maintained properly, the brand attracts more loyal customers, has a higher market share, and has the power to define and command the market prices.

The Role of Brand Value and Equity in B2B SaaS

The role of these components is the same for any business, including B2B SaaS brands and companies we all know. They largely contribute to:

Trust and Credibility

When a B2B SaaS brand is recognizable on the market, its value grows in the same way as equity. It’s important to pay attention to these elements, as they showcase trust and loyalty and may attract significant investments, too. 

Customer Retention

High brand equity can lead to customer loyalty and retention in the B2B SaaS world. Business clients are more likely to renew their subscriptions if they perceive your brand positively. That way, you increase its monetary value in case you want to sell the product to another company to run it. 

Competitive Advantage

As your brand value gets bigger, your SaaS product gets more attention, being respected by the industry and potential customers. That way, you can easily differentiate from the crowded B2B market, making it easier for you to win more deals and gain valuable business customers.

Decision-Making Process

When your brand has a high monetary value, and many people are using and recommending it at the same time, you can easily navigate through the decision-making process. Many potential buyers care for how your B2B SaaS product works and how it eases their workflow, but they also care for overall value and reputation. People love brands they can trust and recognize, so the value and equity largely contribute to that. 

Expansion and Growth

If your B2B SaaS business grows and expands, its value goes up, and more investors and stakeholders are interested in it. At the same time, the existing customers can explore more features and even sign up for a more expensive pricing model when they trust you. 

Customer Advocacy

CustomerCustomer advocacy is part of B2B SaaS brand equity because satisfied customers are the best brand advocates. And when many recommend the product, service, or solution, the brand value increases rapidly, gaining an even more stable market position.

So, we defined the foundations of brand value and equity. Now it’s time to explore the B2B SaaS brand reputation beyond that:

Going Beyond Value: Building Emotional Connections

Owning a B2B SaaS company is not only about providing a solution but also fostering lasting relationships with the customers. Surely, the essential value of SaaS products is the features and functionalities, but they aren’t worth much if there are no customers to use them.

By understanding their pain points, challenges, and aspirations, you can build a deep and emotional connection between the customers and your brand. For example, if you offer a SaaS product to manage complex workflows, you need to guess what are the pain points the customers may have. 

Is that the lack of time to complete all the tasks? Or maybe they have problems delegating tasks to the appropriate person? What about planning the tasks while being overachievers? Or even giving short timeframes while expecting quality? By acknowledging and addressing these emotional aspects, B2B SaaS brands can resonate with their audience and create a sense of partnership.

Your goal is to demonstrate how a specific SaaS product resolves all these issues by reinforcing success stories to show how it positively impacts the lives and workflow of real users. Highlight the features like easy task delegation, less stress for project managers, and simple collaboration – and there you are. 

Surely, different B2B SaaS products target different pain points, depending on the type, whether it’s accounting, HR, billing, communication, project management, or any other type of product. 

Unveiling the Essence: Brand Identity and Purpose

In B2B SaaS, many product features may overlap, but the brand identity is what makes you different from the others. Let’s say you offer a project management SaaS product that surely has the same features as many others on the market. But when you create a unique brand identity and, of course, a purpose, you empower your business and help your product stand out. 

Let’s take ClickUp as an example. It offers advanced project management tools like delegating tasks, tracking time, or assigning the completed task for review. Guess what? The same goes for Asana, Trello, Monday, and many others. Still, they all have different brand identities and different ways to represent all those incorporated features. But everyone who uses some of these SaaS products can recognize the color scheme, font, patterns, and looks in general. 

So, the purpose may be the same, but the brand identity is the essence of being different from your competitors, even when you offer almost the same features. 

Navigating the Digital Landscape: Online Presence and User Experience

The online presence is essential for every B2B SaaS brand. The point is that your website is what your potential customers land on initially, being the contact point between you two. Surely, it showcases many aspects: the brand identity first, then the software’s capabilities, social proof and testimonials, and clear calls to action. Still, you need to ensure a smooth experience all the way around, like fast-loading pages, intuitive navigation, and responsive design. 

Still, having a website is not enough to enhance your online presence. You need to involve social media strategy and leverage online forums and communities. Be consistent across all digital accounts, including the website, to reinforce your brand authority in the B2B SaaS realm.

The Power of Thought Leadership: Content and Industry Authority

If you successfully establish thought leadership in the B2B SaaS world, you can also work on building brand authority. What does it take to do that? First, you’ll have to position your brand and key executives as industry experts. But how? It’s easy – by creating and promoting valuable content that addresses industry trends, best practices, and customer challenges. 

Let’s say you offer AI-driven marketing analytics software with a few unique features. What do you need to do at this point? Through your content, you need to show the target audience you understand the challenges and benefits AI brings to the SaaS industry. Next, you should discuss the future of AI marketing by providing insights. Make sure you organize webinars or attend industry events to elevate authority and credibility. 

The goal is, when someone is talking about AI marketing and analytics, the first association with it is to be your B2B SaaS brand. That’s the power of thought leadership and strategically executed content marketing and distribution.

Customer-Centric Branding: Building Trust and Advocacy

The simple SaaS funnel includes three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. However, the advanced B2B SaaS marketing strategy must include advocacy as a funnel pump since that’s how you gain more customers. The ideal funnel approximation is easy to understand. You need to inform the unaware about why they need a particular SaaS solution or the aware ones why they need a solution just like yours. During the decision stage, you need to showcase your brand value, position, and worth to make them purchase or at least take the demo. 

But do you know that well-nurtured customers are very likely to recommend your product to their friends, partners, or collaborators? It’s not as easy as it seems,  but you need to actively listen to existing customers’ feedback, pain points, and concerns so you can improve the offer and make them active advocates. 

It’s part of building trust in the B2B SaaS realm while attracting new customers – whether it’s through advocacy or other marketing efforts like paid promotion, SEO, or social media marketing. 

How to Establish Brand Value and Equity? (for B2B SaaS)

Establishing brand value and equity for B2B SaaS requires defining your brand identity by addressing the mission, values, and unique selling proposition. Also, you must understand what sets your B2B SaaS company apart from the industry competitors. 

By using the customer-centric approach and thought leadership, you can deliver value to the customers, no matter if you nurture the existing ones or try to attract new ones through marketing channels. At the same time, make sure you maintain consistent branding so your brand is recognizable and trustworthy. 

We also suggest collecting and showcasing testimonials and user experiences to show how your SaaS solution improved their workflow or resolved some issues. 

You’ll be surprised how these details contribute to the brand’s monetary value and customer recognition, i.e., value and equity. 

How to Bring SaaS Brand Awareness?

There are quite a few ways to gain brand awareness for your SaaS company. You can start with content marketing as you create valuable and shareable content that addresses specific pains and needs. Publish enough blog posts, host webinars, and record videos to establish your experience. 

At this point, you’ll need to optimize the website for search engines, including resolving all the technical aspects that prevent good rankings and implementing on-page SEO tactics to rank higher. Still, never ignore your social media presence, where you can engage with the target audience.

Think about approaching the audience directly through emails, i.e., sending newsletters, product updates, educational content, or promotional features. Use the power of paid advertising, if possible, or even develop a PR strategy to tell your B2B SaaS story. 

How to Build a SaaS Branding Strategy?

So, now, the question is, how do we accomplish all those things we mentioned in this article?

You need to perform market research first and be aware of who your competitors are. Decide what’s your unique position in the market and highlight it as an advantage. Segment the target audience into buyer personas and tailor your message according to it. 

Also, develop a messaging framework to communicate the value proposition consistently. Work on a content strategy that speaks directly to the target audience, and decide what channels you’ll use to distribute the content. Make sure you follow the brand guidelines, like design, tone, and messaging, all the time. 

Set a long-term vision, but don’t forget to test and optimize to see how the campaigns go and what you need to change in the current plan. 

By following this guide, you can establish brand value and equity but also learn what’s beyond that. As a result, you build a solid B2B SaaS brand strategy that resonates with the target audience and brings growth to your company.