4 Types of Positioning for SaaS Products
Positioning helps potential customers understand what your product does and who it does if for so what type of positioning should you use to tell this story? Let's break down your options.
Most successful products in the market have achieved product-market fit. This means that they have found the right type of customer(s) that love their product and pay to use them.
The key ingredient for product-market fit is positioning. It defines what the product does, who it does it for and how it’s different from existing alternatives.
However, positioning is not something you can just create. It’s not copywriting and you cannot just make it up, you need to collaborate with internal teams, do a lot of research and conduct A/B tests to understand the best way to position a product for success.
In this issue, I will share 4 different ways you can position a product so that it’s easy for you to identify where your product fits and determine what type of positioning is best.
4 Different Types of Positioning Strategies for SaaS Products
#1: Customer Needs Positioning:
This approach focuses on deeply understanding your target market and the specific gaps or pain points your product addresses. By becoming a champion for your customers' needs, you build trust and establish yourself as the go-to solution.
To win with this type of positioning, your product needs to be solve one specific problem really well - many times with 1 - 3 key features only.
An example of a product doing this very well is Calendly. They laser-focus on the singular pain point of meeting scheduling, and deliver a solution that solves this pain point extremely well.
#2: Price Positioning:
Price positioning can be a powerful tool, especially in a very crowded competitive space. Are you the budget-friendly choice for value-conscious buyers? Or the high-end solution for those seeking superior quality?
This type of positioning can be tough to pull off. If you’re positioning as the affordable option, the product has to have enough value to be worth buying but not too much that it starts losing money for the business.
On the other hand, if the product is a premium option, then it needs to maintain superior quality features and user experience. You need to find your product’s strengths in this dynamic and use it well.
An example of price positioning is ProductFruits. They are positioned as the affordable alternative to User pilot, which makes sense as User pilot is a market leader in their category and thus are premium priced.
#3: Use Case Positioning:
This type of positioning is very common and focuses on the specific problem your product solves for a specific group of people.
An example is Linkedin, positioned for connecting professionals with each other and job opportunities.
Though it shares similarities with platforms like Instagram, its clear use case is, “Use us if you’re a professional that wants to find and connect with other professionals or find jobs”
This is a very powerful way to position a product and in a very crowded market with a large market size, you can use this type of positioning to niche down your target audience and go for one specific type of customer that will use your product to solve a specific problem.
#4: Competitor Positioning:
This means directly comparing your product to competitors, emphasizing your strengths and their weaknesses.
An example of a product that uses this type of positioning is Coda. Their positioning is bold and claims to be “more powerful than Google Docs and more flexible than Airtable or Notion”
If you want to position your product this way, your product must be able to live up to the hype and you should be bold about it - without overdoing it of course.
Be mindful of striking the right balance - focus on your own value proposition and how it is stronger rather than solely bashing the competition.
Before you settle for any one of these 4 types of positioning, you should test it with real users and validate that it is the right option to go with.
If one type of positioning stops making sense as the product evolves or due to market or customer changes, you should be ready to adapt and update your positioning accordingly.
Successful positioning is an ongoing process so continuously monitor your customers, the market and competitors to see how change might affect it.
I joined ADPList to help more product marketers navigate the product marketing role especially as beginners. You can book a 1:1 session with me here if you’d like to explore more about positioning.