.svg)
For SaaS companies, the phrase “the customer is always right” is on point. A lack of customer interest can lead to failures.
So, before even starting a SaaS business, you need to conduct SaaS market research to understand better what you are dealing with and what steps you need to take for future success.
Let’s cover everything step by step!
What is SaaS Market Research
SaaS market research involves gathering data about the target audience, competitors, and market trends to help you focus on target users and make strategic decisions. Whether you target customer feedback on your products, what your competitors will launch, or the newest market trends and strategies, the end goal of SaaS market analysis is to know the customer and gain better insight into the target audience community.
SaaS market analysis is a necessary step for the success of any SaaS company. Combined with analysis, this powerful tool can help you stay ahead of the competition.
Defining the Four Types of Market Research
Each of the four sub-types of market research can help you better understand B2B SaaS market trends and develop a stronger marketing strategy. Try using these approaches to develop better products for your target market. Let’s explore them in more detail!
Primary Research
Primary research refers to a type of data that you collect yourself and directly get feedback from customers. In this approach, you can collect data by surveys, forms, questionnaires, interviews, etc.
This type of research can be one of the valuable research types because it directly collects data from customers and gets feedback. Companies can use this data to understand market needs better and plan for new products or services.
This type of research also provides a way to collect insights on your business strengths and weaknesses and further improve them, which can be a crucial step if you want your company to thrive and succeed in the future.
Secondary Research
Secondary research involves using third-party data, which means buying data already available in the market. This data has been previously collected and analyzed by other organizations, and it can provide a primary understanding of the subject you want to research.
With secondary research, businesses can view information that already exists and has been gathered in order to gain insight into what other companies have done and what results they have achieved. For example, if a company has used a new method for reaching out to its customers and has succeeded, other companies in the same industry can use those methods, too.
To conduct secondary research, you can focus on industry reports, ebooks, surveys, or even expert interviews. While reviewing the data, consider which helps you operate better than your competitors and leads you to success.
Qualitative Research
Companies also use qualitative research to deal with data that can not be measured, such as non-numerical data. This type of data can include quotes, images, symbols, and speeches, which add more depth to your findings.
This research aims to better understand customer experiences with your product and its features. Qualitative research is mostly used to summarize the data rather than discover exact facts.
Quantitative Research
Unlike qualitative research, quantitative research measures numerical and measurable data. This type of research is all about gathering evidence to support your marketing strategy and gain insights about your customers.
Quantitative research can be conducted using questionnaires, surveys, polls, statistics, and financial reports. Later, marketers use these results to understand customer needs better and adjust their new marketing strategies.
One major advantage of quantitative research is that analytics platforms can predict future trends. Since it uses numeric data, it is statistically valid, and you can track changes to adjust your progress based on the strategy.
How to do SaaS market research in 13 steps
Now that you know the four types of SaaS market research, let’s walk through the process step by step.
A study mentioning the importance of the SaaS market shows that the global software as a service market was estimated at USD 399.10 billion in 2024 and is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.0% from 2025 to 2030.
Identify a pain point that could have a better solution
By pain point, you refer to a situation where a better solution exists to solve it. Now, this situation can be simple, or it can be a complex situation that must go through different processes to be solved. Whether the situation when you have the possible solution ready, you can investigate the market to see where that solution fits.
To identify these pain points, you can engage potential customers to understand their challenges and examine possible solutions. You can strengthen your B2B marketing strategy by focusing on these pain points.
Identify your potential customers
When starting your research, one necessary step after recognizing the pain points and the right solutions is recognizing the exact potential customers and those who would benefit from these solutions. To start this process, consider your potential customers and their pain points. Segmenting the market to understand customer demographics may help you find the solution faster.
Once you have the customers, you can start with the ones who have most experienced the pain point. Why? Because starting with niche customers can be more beneficial for us.
When you have your group of potential customers ready, you can focus on what is of value to them, what products they are willing to pay for, and why this solution is more suitable for them compared to other solutions.
By carefully identifying your potential customers and suitable solutions for them, your marketing and development team can be more focused on improving the best solution, staying ahead of the competition, and increasing your chance of success in the SaaS market.
Determine your niche and potential market size
Once you have identified your niche potential customers, estimate your potential market size. This helps you assess whether your solution is viable and scalable for your market size.
After determining the size of your niche market, it’s better to see what your competitors are doing:
What share of the market do they have?
In which gap can you stand out?
What’s the total amount of demand for your solution in that niche market?
How much can you actually manage?
This step in conducting a SaaS market analysis helps you recognize the overcrowded markets with too many competitors and focus on niche markets. As a result, you can plan realistically and monitor your solution.
Analyze competitors and substitutes
After identifying your potential market size, it's crucial to analyze the competition and the current customer base. This analysis determines whether your solution offers something unique compared to existing alternatives in the market.
In this step, you need to consider whether your solution adds new value and how you can provide more value for the market. By analyzing competitors and substitutes, you can build your SaaS product to stand out among competitors.
If you think competition is nil, think again. A study shows that approximately 17,000 companies operate in the Customer Service Solutions sector, 15,000 in Marketing Software, 14,000 in E-commerce, 12,000 in Data and Analytics, and around 11,500 in Sales.
This highlights the importance of analyzing your competitors to succeed in the related SaaS market.
Competitive landscape
One method for analyzing the competition is competitive landscape analysis. This analysis gives you a static view of the market and better positions your product or solution.
In this analysis, look at your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and how they are branding themselves. Then, identify what you have better than them and what unique value you have to stand different from them.
Competitive landscape analysis determines customer acquisition channels your competitors may have missed, plan your products based on competitors' weaknesses, and gain a sustainable advantage.
Competitive advantages
Analyzing competitive advantages is another important step in understanding your market position. This analysis differentiates your SaaS products from the existing ones and strengthens your position.
Understanding your competitors' advantages can help you improve the products and features that set you apart. Analysis can also help you determine the market or your competitors' weak points, capitalize on them, and offer a unique solution to your customers.
Competitive Matrix
A competitive matrix is a structured research method that compares your features and products to those of your competitors based on valuable traits. This helps you better understand your position and visualize your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors.
With this analysis, you can clear your strategic advantages and find the gaps in the market where your products and features fit perfectly.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analyzes your products internally and externally to understand your position in the competitive market.
This strategic analysis identifies the advantages, opportunities, risks, and threats your products face. Advantages can be found in your product or your branding strategy. Risks or threats can make you vulnerable to competitors or cause issues that may result in customer departure.
When building a long-term product, SWOT analysis helps you to create a stronger SaaS strategy, adjust your positioning and what to look out for in the future, and prepare for the challenges ahead.
Win/loss analysis
Win-loss analysis lets you understand your market performance and why you are winning or losing against competitors. Honestly examining your strategy can help your team refine your products and identify where you may be losing customers.
Adjusting a win/loss analysis increases conversion rates, provides insight into what customers may need, and optimizes your competitive edge.
Battlecard
Battlecards provide the sales team with quick-to-digest information to help them through the sales process and help them understand current market needs and potential substitutes.
This tool gives your team the possible advantage, positions your brand, and outshines the competition.
In a nutshell, Sale battle cards are competition analysis tools that detail necessary information for your sales representatives to win deals.
Speak to your potential customers
One of the best ways to know your customers better is to speak to your potential customers. To get more direct feedback, you can talk to them yourself and ask the right questions to get the responses you need to know.
You can begin by selecting a small group of potential customers, contacting them via email or LinkedIn, and asking them your questions directly. Listen objectively to get more helpful feedback. You can adjust the questions you ask based on what you need, such as their pain points, what they think you could have done to solve them, or what features would make your products more usable for them.
This approach builds a stronger connection with your community, understanding their needs better as well as building trust with your potential customers and leads.
Determine what is the end goal
As your customers' needs evolve, your products need to evolve alongside them. That means your market research is a continuous process. You need to align your goals with customer desires and to start, you can determine your customers' end goals rather than just focusing on solving their pain points.
Many people may miss this step when conducting market research because it’s easier to start by asking potential customers about their needs and to start with them. However, determining your end goals and continuing to serve them ensures that you follow a smoother path in the long run and provide the best solutions for customers.
For a SaaS company, this step can be about creating a balance between product features, customer needs, and business strategy, bringing success to your products.
Keep offering new features to stay competitive
SaaS companies are selling their products to customers, and they need to continuously evolve to add new features, new products, and new solutions, as well as improve the previous ones to stay put with the rising market trends and customer needs.
To do this process within your customer community, you can ask potential customers what aspects they like about your products or services and what about it they want to improve. Also, tracking competitor's new products and features gives you plenty of ideas in this step to decide your future steps. Having an understanding knowledge of the market helps you stay ahead of the industry shifts.
By constantly improving and offering new features to the market, you can show your customers that you are different in the crowded SaaS market and offer innovations.
Dos and Dont's of Market Research
Now that you know how to do SaaS market analysis, before conducting the research, it’s better to have careful planning and execution. Here, you’ll go through what you need to avoid and tips that are better to consider in market research.
The Do’s of Market Research
1. Set clear goals
Before starting the research, setting goals and clearly understanding what you are trying to accomplish is important. Defining goals shapes your market strategy, so having clear goals is a necessary step.
2. Identifying target customers
Try to identify your ideal customers and understand their needs better, what are their pain points and review their demographics. To ensure relevant insights, you can start by focusing on your target customers.
3. Use all data sources
Don’t just focus on one source of data, try to gather data from different sources of information like surveys, social media, competitive analysis, etc. Combining all these data brings a more comprehensive view of the data.
4. Use appropriate and related methods
When choosing methods to conduct the research, try to align these methods with your goals. The right methods validate the market demands and optimize your strategy properly.
5. Stay updated on market trends
The SaaS market changes quickly, it’s important to keep up with market trends to stay ahead of competitors and customer needs. Keeping up with market trends allows you to adjust your strategy effectively.
The Don't of Market Research
1. Neglecting competitor research and analysis
Neglecting your competitors and their new trends and features can skew your understanding of new market trends and your own position in the market. Focusing solely on your own products won’t allow you to see the bigger competitive edge of the market.
2. Relying on one type of data
Solely relying on one type of data source can’t answer all of your business questions and supply your objectives. Making decisions based on one type of data can make you lose the opportunities and have a biased insight.
3. Data misinterpretation
Misinterpreting data can lead to flawed conclusions and wrong decisions. This wastes your resources and causes you to lose market opportunities. Ensuring that data interpretation is accurate, you can make more strategic decisions essential for a winning strategy.
4. Complicate surveys or questionnaires
When creating surveys or questionnaires, try to keep it simple and understandable. Complicated questions can confuse your customers and prevent you from getting clear and accurate feedback.
5. Ignoring negative feedbacks
Ignoring negative feedback or criticisms can prevent you from understanding your flaws and miss improvements. Instead of dismissing negative feedback, try to see it as an opportunity to improve your products and answer customer concerns.
Wrap it up
Whether you are a business marketer or working for a long-established SaaS business, you know that there is no end to your market. Running a SaaS market research can be an essential step for any SaaS business. This research technically moves you up and forward with your customer’s demands.
Launching a SaaS product is a process of constantly running SaaS market research to help you ensure your products and features are ahead of the competition. Since the trends, data, and market needs constantly change, SaaS market research is here to help us.
Here at AI Bees we help you to conduct SaaS market research and discover its great potential for your business.
Book a demo today and start your journey toward SaaS success!
.svg)
%201.svg)
.svg)
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
.webp)