Why don’t B2B marketers talk about joy?
When you boil it down, there are three ways of creating value in B2B SaaS. But some are more often used than others. Most SaaS vendors will talk about how they save you time. Many will talk about how they save you money. But there’s one that is often neglected altogether: how they deliver joy. I find this sad!
Joy is one of the most incredible emotional values a product can produce. It’s subjective and unexpected and the kind of thing we can all relate to spending money on. This is probably why it’s the most used tactic in B2C.
So why don’t B2B SaaS companies talk about it? I have a theory.
Talking about time and money is methodical and corporate
In B2B SaaS, most businesses increase efficiency (which saves money) or unlock new revenue streams (which makes money). These messages are built into the cultural fabric of ‘why we build’ in B2B and are often a big part of the problem solved. Something is inefficient, so SaaS answers this with a shortcut. If something costs a lot to do, SaaS finds a cheaper way, even if that means job replacement. These things, like code, are methodical and quantitative. They’re right in the technical founder’s comfort zone and in the language of a key corporate buyer. But joy? That’s philosophical and often more geared towards the user.
Talking about joy is deep and consumer-led
When we talk about joy, it’s often the answer to why people work, why they get out of bed in the morning and do their job, and what makes a person feel like they bring value to the table. Joy is tricky to write a value proposition about because it’s subjective, but joy (and its definition) can also be shared among many—that’s where your sweet spot is.
Let’s look a little more at the types of joy that B2B SaaS can spark so you can see how joy is put into action in a value message.
Bringing Joy into a Value Message
Sense of mastery
Sometimes, I call this the “yes you can” value message. This is about having a customer profile that really wants to be able to do something but can’t. No-code applications are particularly good at this one. But let’s look at an example closer to home for us at maassive.
When we started working with Brilliant Assessments, we spent a lot of time thinking about why people chose it. What we found by reading customer surveys, success stories, and trawling through the help resources is that the reason why a lot of people love it is because it can enable them to build any assessment. Assessments they may have only dreamed of producing were made possible by the platform's flexibility. In fact, it was (and still is) so flexible that you could essentially build a business on the platform. It was with this we came up with a couple of value messages that still hit home for the ICP:
Build it, brand it, and be brilliant with assessments.
Do brilliant things with assessments.
Now, I’ve got to say, it’s not as specific as I would usually recommend, but when you’re marketing flexibility to a wide audience, ‘brilliant things’ is about as specific as you can get, and we always made up for it in the follow-up sentences.
Renewed focus
The joy of renewed focus is an excellent value message. However, it’s also the only joy-led value message that Chat GPT seems to have picked up on, so if you find yourself saying: So you can spend less time doing x and more time focused doing y - try again.
A renewed focus value message also doesn’t need the word “focus” in it. That’s not the point. The point is to examine the relationship between ‘doing what you want, when you want to’ and the joy that brings.
One of the best focus-based value lines I have come up with was when I was working for a software business that targeted law firms. Now, this might not be surprising if you’ve ever sat in a lawyer’s office and seen the mountains of paper and boxes stacked up to the walls, but lawyers aren’t huge fans of technology. So when a law firm brings in a new shiny system, it’s often met with reluctance to adopt it.
This solution got lawyers to use and enjoy the software by meeting them where they worked every day: in their inboxes. They didn’t have to learn anything, they didn’t have to do anything. All they had to do was agree to have a bit of technology logging case emails and progress hanging out in the background. I’m oversimplifying all the user levels, but for the lawyers, this was all they needed to know.
So we rolled out the value proposition:
Love the way you work
We create Microsoft Cloud-based applications that law firms love to use.
And we would then follow up with how all the features and benefits, etc. But this sent a clear message that you can focus on lawyering because this software is made for what you find joy in doing. I’m possibly romanticising how much lawyers love their jobs, but you get the idea.
Overcoming blockers
I love getting past the wall. For me, if you can unblock progress, that’s a fast track to my happy place. It’s probably why I love AI so much. Chat GPT had me doing parkour when I usually lie in a dark room for ten minutes trying to figure out what to do next.
For my last example, let’s look at FluidSEO.
FluidSEO worked with us for a couple of months, particularly on messaging and positioning. The app uses AI to do the hard work of SEO for web designers and builders using Webflow as their platform - think metadata, image alt text, all the stuff that sounds like a fresh nightmare to anyone who’s not super into SEO. For builders, SEO was often that final box that needed ticking from a go-live standpoint. SEO was a necessary but painful blocker to completion. This is where FluidSEO comes in and covers all the pre-live must-haves, page by page.
So we came up with some value messages around this:
Going live on Webflow? Get FluidSEO
Get your Webflow site live and found with FluidSEO
These are simple messages, but they deliver joy by pushing past obstacles.
Bottom Line
Incorporating joy into B2B SaaS messaging can set a product apart in an industry that often feels impersonal and efficiency-driven. By tapping into the emotional value that comes from mastery, focus, and overcoming blockers, SaaS companies can connect with their customers in a way that resonates with why they do their work.
The key takeaway is that joy doesn’t have to be reserved for B2C; it’s just as relevant in B2B if you know where to find it. For a B2B SaaS product, joy can mean making a task feel seamless, empowering users to achieve something they didn’t think possible, or removing that one last obstacle that lets them achieve their goals. These types of joy can be woven into value propositions that go beyond “save time and money,” creating a more memorable and meaningful message that resonates.
So, if you’re in B2B SaaS, don’t just talk about what you can help your customers do faster or cheaper—talk about how you can help them enjoy the journey, love their work, and feel empowered by what they accomplish.
