The Effects Of Changing Saas Platforms
As the recession rolls on, some SaaS platforms (cough, Klaviyo, cough) are raising their prices at seemingly the worst possible time for many of their customers. As SaaS platforms prepare to increase valuations ahead of going public or raising another round the value they provide to their customer bases, many brands and their marketing leaders are considering making the switch. We’ve already been approached by multiple vulture alternatives touting their pricing efficiencies compared to the incumbent software we’re using on behalf of any given client.
But marketing leaders need to be careful in making dramatic shifts in SaaS platforms- or service providers for that matter- due to price increases. For starters, while the grass may be greener on the other side, there’s no guarantee it will stay that way after the switch.
Companies rarely, if ever, make truly lateral moves when it comes to people, partners, and platforms. They’re either trading up or trading down- there’s no in between. And if you’re compromising to pinch pennies, you’re trading down 99.9% of the time.
Trading down has consequences. Reductions in capabilities, scope, or feature sets are certain, and while many times the company in question can skate for a quarter or two with minimal effects those reductions eventually catch up to the business. Now all of a sudden the creative isn’t as solid for Black Friday / Cyber Monday, you can’t segment your audiences as well as you did before, and the new person in-house is eager but hasn’t quite found their footing yet. Projects that used to take two days now take two weeks. Your organic traffic is down 15% and it’s starting to reflect in lost sales.
And so on. And so on.
You wouldn’t cut off an arm to lose weight. So, if you’re considering switching platforms, partners, or people during this recession, make sure you’re doing it with your long-term strategy in mind- not just the current quarter’s P&L. And if you need help with your marketing, figuring out what that return is and how to improve it, we’d love to help.
