Differentiation Strategies Inspired By 4 Less-Known B2B SaaS Brands

When discussing differentiation, some of the biggest brands like Salesforce or HubSpot come to mind. But as they say, often, diamonds lie in the rough. In this edition of the Elevate Your Marketing newsletter, we look at 4 lesser-known B2B brands that have done a great job of differentiating themselves in a crowded market.

As I unwind their stories, you will get to learn a few valuable lessons that will help you become the 'purple cow' among a herd of black and brown cows.

Inspiring differentiation strategies from 4 B2B brands

This is how we will discuss the topic: We will take the example of brands one by one and talk about the differentiation lessons or strategies we can learn from each.

Let's get started

1. HighLevel

This is one of my favorite examples when it comes to product differentiation. HighLevel is a marketing automation platform that comes with features such as a website builder, form builder, appointment scheduler, etc. Check out the below video to learn more about the tool:

In a crowded market of giants like HubSpot and Salesforce, HighLevel has positioned itself as a specialized tool for marketing agencies. Unlike other platforms, HighLevel offers agencies the ability to whitelabel it and sell it to their customers, offering an additional revenue opportunity for them.

This is a classic example of niching down the target market for a commoditized product. Instead of being just another player, HighLevel chose to be a purple cow by focusing on agencies.

2. Phrasee

We all know about AI writing tools. I spoke about them in one of Skalegrow's articles too. Now it has gotten to a point where an AI writing tool no longer impresses us. And there are way too many options out there if we were to pick one for our business.

This is where Phrasee makes a difference. While it calls itself a generative AI tool for enterprise marketers (which is not very different from many tools), its focus on creating content on-brand is what makes it stand out.

Whether it's email, SMS, social media, or Google ads, Phrasee can ensure that your tone of voice remains the same across all the platforms. This concept is called Brand Language Optimization (I discussed this in detail in this article)

See the video below to understand how the platform works:

To be honest, ensuring every piece of content's tone is the same is not a more complex use case than generating high-quality content itself. It's more like a natural outcome of using generative AI for content creation. Phrasee has wisely used it to position itself differently in the crowded AI writers market.

3. MadKudu

In a market dominated by popular names like Demandbase, Terminus, and 6sense, MadKudu is trying to give a new meaning to AI-assisted selling. Through its two products Sales Copilot and AI scoring, MadKudu gives marketers and salespeople the right buying signals.

Examples of buying signals include page visits, webinar attendance, meeting bookings, etc. MadKudu combines intent intelligence and marketing attribution to equip B2B businesses to sell to high-intent leads that are more likely to convert.

The company uses its website copy very well to communicate this. See the screenshot below for example:

MadKudu is a great example of using a simple suite of products to solve a very specific problem - how to prioritize leads to improve conversions and winnability. The simplicity is reflected in its messaging and the target audience is able to clearly understand the outcomes to expect.

4. Navan

If you have been in the corporate world for a while, you would have felt or seen the pain of managing a group business trip. The way too many calls, the never-ending email exchanges, and managing multiple stakeholders, all lead to unnecessary wastage of time and resources. Navan solves this problem for businesses. It 'SaaSified' an industry that was unorganized and had way too many small players.

Now, here is the interesting part.

Navan did not just position itself as an end-to-end travel management platform for businesses. It also focused on improving employee experience by offering a way to ease the travel booking process for them. With features like rewards, employees are also incentivized to use the self-serve solution.

What was a travel management platform has been turned into an employee experience booster by Navan. This is a great example of how you can think outside the boundaries of the core features of a solution to attract a larger audience through differentiation.

Final words

Differentiation has no boundaries on how you can do it. The objective is to become a Purple Cow. But it doesn't matter whether you do it by painting a cow purple or genetically mutating it. The outcome is what matters. All the examples we discussed in this article are a testament to the fact that differentiation can mean different things for different brands.

So, how are you going to apply differentiation in your business?

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More learning resources

Skalegrow has a blog that has more than 60 articles on various topics in B2B marketing. We discuss content, ABM, demand gen, martech, LinkedIn marketing, and much more there. Check it out here.

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As always, until we meet next time, happy learning!