Vitamin vs Painkiller Revisited
Is your app a vitamin or a painkiller? Why is this question relevant?
A digression away from the series on Growth Loops that I’m publishing at the moment. I found myself mentioning Vitamin vs Painkiller on twitter and decided to do a little research on that.
In the world of SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses, there are two types of products: vitamins and painkillers. Vitamins are products that offer nice-to-have benefits, while painkillers are products that solve a specific, urgent problem.
It’s easy to think of a vitamin as a dietary supplement. Taking vitamins can improve your overall health and well-being, but they're not something you necessarily need to survive. On the other hand, a painkiller is like medicine that you take when you're in pain. It's something you need in order to feel better and function properly.
When it comes to SaaS products, vitamins are often things like social media management tools or project management software. These products are nice to have, but they don't necessarily solve a specific problem that a customer is experiencing.
Painkillers, on the other hand, are products like accounting software or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. These products solve a specific pain point that a customer is experiencing, such as managing finances or keeping track of customer interactions.
Three examples of Vitamins
Trello - Trello is a project management app that helps you organize and prioritize tasks using a visual board with lists and cards. While it's a helpful tool for managing projects, it's not necessarily something that you need in order to solve a specific pain point.
Slack - Slack is a popular messaging app that allows teams to communicate and collaborate in real-time. It's a convenient way to stay connected and share information, but it's not solving a specific problem in the same way that a painkiller app would. Although some of you might debate this.
Hootsuite - Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows you to schedule and publish posts across multiple social media platforms. While it can be a helpful tool for managing your social media presence, it's not necessarily something you need in order to solve a specific pain point.
These three apps are all examples of vitamins in the SaaS space, as they provide helpful benefits but don't necessarily solve a specific, urgent problem for their users. They're still valuable tools for many businesses, but they're not the same as a painkiller app that solves a critical problem for its users.
Three examples of Painkillers
QuickBooks - QuickBooks is an accounting software that helps businesses manage their finances by tracking income and expenses, invoicing customers, and managing payroll. It's a painkiller app because it solves a specific, critical problem that businesses face in managing their finances (as is any accounting software).
Salesforce - Salesforce is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that helps businesses manage their interactions with customers by tracking leads, managing contacts, and providing insights into customer behavior. It's a painkiller app because it solves a specific, critical problem that businesses face in managing their customer relationships.
Zoom - Zoom is a video conferencing app that allows people to connect and collaborate remotely through video calls, webinars, and screen sharing. It's a painkiller app because it solves a specific, critical problem that businesses face in communicating and collaborating with remote teams and clients. (You might ask “Why Zoom is a painkiller and not a vitamin like Slack is?” - Remember that Slack was designed for internal communication and Zoom for external. You can get by with other internal communication tools (email/whatsapp/etc) but Zoom was, at one time, king of video call software for communicating with third parties.
These three apps are all examples of painkillers in the SaaS space, as they provide solutions to specific, urgent problems that businesses face in managing their finances, customer relationships, and communication with remote teams. They're critical tools that businesses rely on to operate effectively and efficiently.
Is marketing a Vitamin more difficult than marketing a Painkiller SaaS?
Yes. Marketing a vitamin SaaS product can be more difficult than marketing a painkiller SaaS product.
The reason for this is that with a vitamin product, you're trying to convince potential customers that they need something that they don't necessarily need to survive. Vitamins are nice-to-have, but they're not essential. So, marketing a vitamin SaaS product requires a different approach than marketing a painkiller SaaS product.
With a vitamin SaaS product, you need to convince potential customers that your product will improve their lives in some way, even if they don't necessarily need it to solve a critical problem. This can be more challenging, as you need to find ways to create a desire for the product and show potential customers how it can make their lives better.
But that doesn’t mean we should stop building Vitamin SaaS projects. There are lots of successful, and useful, SaaS being used. (And think of this in terms of the actual vitamin & supplement market here too).
There’s three possible ways to market a Vitamin SaaS. These are:
To Create educational content: One effective way to market a vitamin SaaS product is to create educational content that showcases the value of your product. This could be in the form of blog posts, videos, or tutorials that help potential customers understand the benefits of using your product. By providing value upfront, you can establish trust with potential customers and make them more likely to consider your product. Video is a very powerful tool here.
One such product that used this method is HubSpot. HubSpot is a marketing and sales software that provides a suite of tools for businesses to attract, engage, and delight customers. While HubSpot does solve a pain point for businesses by making it easier to manage their marketing and sales processes, it also offers a range of features that can be considered a vitamin for businesses looking to grow their online presence.
To promote their vitamin features, HubSpot has created an extensive library of educational content, including blog posts, webinars, courses, and ebooks. This content provides valuable insights and practical tips on topics like social media marketing, content creation, and email marketing. All things that helped potential customers. By creating educational content that helps businesses improve their online presence, HubSpot has established itself as a thought leader in the marketing and sales industry and built a loyal following of customers and advocates.
In addition to its educational content, HubSpot also offers a range of free tools, such as its website grader and marketing grader, that provide insights into how businesses can improve their online presence. By providing value upfront and establishing trust with potential customers, HubSpot was able to grow its user base and become a leading provider of marketing and sales software.
Use social media to build a community: Social media can be a powerful tool for marketing a vitamin SaaS product. By building a community around your product on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you can create a space for potential customers to engage with your brand and learn more about the value of your product. By sharing content, answering questions, and engaging with your followers, you can build trust and awareness for your product.
One example of a company that used social media to build a community to promote their vitamin SaaS product is Canva. Canva is a graphic design tool that allows users to create professional-looking graphics, posters, and presentations. While Canva does solve a pain point for businesses and individuals who need to create graphic designs but don't have the skills or resources to hire a professional designer, it also offers a range of features that can be considered a vitamin for users who want to improve their design skills and creativity.
To promote its vitamin features, Canva has leveraged social media to build a community of users and advocates. Canva has active accounts on all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. On these platforms, Canva shares inspiring designs, design tips and tutorials, and user-generated content. Canva also hosts regular design challenges and competitions on social media, which encourage users to showcase their skills and creativity using Canva.
By building a community of engaged users and advocates on social media, Canva has been able to create a strong brand identity and establish itself as a leader in the graphic design industry. Canva's social media strategy has also helped the company to acquire new users through word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals. Canva's success on social media shows that building a community around a vitamin SaaS product can be an effective way to promote the product and create a loyal user base.
Leverage influencer marketing: Influencer marketing can be a powerful tool for promoting a vitamin SaaS product, especially if you're targeting a specific niche market. By partnering with influencers in your industry or niche, you can tap into their audience and leverage their credibility to promote your product. This can help you reach a wider audience and build awareness for your product.
One example of a company that leveraged influencer marketing to promote their vitamin SaaS product is Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows businesses and individuals to manage multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard. While Hootsuite does solve a pain point for businesses and individuals who need to manage multiple social media accounts, it also offers a range of features that can be considered a vitamin for users who want to improve their social media strategy and engagement.
To promote its vitamin features, Hootsuite has leveraged influencer marketing to reach new audiences and build credibility. Hootsuite has partnered with social media influencers and thought leaders in the digital marketing industry to promote its product on social media and other channels. These influencers share their experiences and insights on how Hootsuite has helped them improve their social media strategy and engagement, and recommend the product to their followers.
By leveraging influencer marketing, Hootsuite has been able to reach new audiences and build credibility among its target market. Influencers have helped to promote Hootsuite as a tool that can help businesses and individuals improve their social media strategy and achieve their goals. Hootsuite's success with influencer marketing shows that partnering with trusted influencers can be an effective way to promote a vitamin SaaS product and build credibility with your target market.
So is your startup idea or product a vitamin or a painkiller? Once you decide on this, then you’ll be able to choose the right strategy and apply marketing tactics that are suitable. Lots of people shy away from Vitamins when creating SaaS, but there’s still a good reason to create vitamins and there’s plenty of creative ways to promote them.