Have you ever shopped for software before?

When I do, I have one looming question: How will it help me in my position? 

Some software solutions can help many people. HubSpot would be an example.

You could be a content marketer, CRM manager, salesperson, or even a data-driven marketer. The way you would use HubSpot would be different for each. 

And I believe seeing your specific use case before buying would be helpful. It would contextual the benefits the software brings for your particular role.

Note: Use cases can be for specific uses of the product.

An example of this is Appcues, an onboarding software. They have a “use cases” tab which points to all the uses that you could use Appcues for:

This is a unique way to showcase the “jobs” your product does. And it’s effective in persuading a buyer if each use case is specific to a person making the benefit contextual.

Another example similar to Appcues is Stripe, the payments software. They choose to use their use case section to target specific customer segments. Their drop-down for use cases includes:

Each of those has its own landing pages that would inform and persuade that segment on how their product helps them.

Let’s say you only have a few (2-3) customer segments. How do you execute this strategy? Be direct.

An example is Kissmetrics, a marketing analytics software that targets SaaS and eCommerce. Instead of having a use case tab, they focus on having main nav items for each. Then, on the landing page for each segment, they directly address their software helping that segment.

It moves you away from generalized selling to specific selling. You can get more specific with your features, customer testimonials, and jobs to be done.

It also shows your customer that you understand them. You have created something specifically for them and have the information to back that up.

Essentially, it eases the friction of someone purchasing your product. They can understand how it helps them and overcome the thought, “What if this won’t help me in my role?”

Have you seen any examples of companies using the use case section well?

What do you think about using use cases for your business?

🧠 + ❤️ // JO