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The cloud is all the rage these days.  Saugatuck Technology's  Bruce Guptill released some interesting market research predicting that by 2014 the majority of new corporate B2B software purchases will be in the form of cloud software solutions (SaaS) rather than traditional on-premise software. This is a significant tipping point, after which adoption of cloud services is expected to further accelerate. What does this mean for B2B marketers selling cloud solutions and software as a service? I think it will pretty much change the rules of the game, and in ways that are somewhat unpredictable today. Here is why. Why SaaS Marketing Rocks After having taken to market both SaaS (starting in 2002) as well as traditional on-premise software solutions, I observed first hand some of the significant differences between the two models as it relates to marketing. And I also learned a few lessons along the way (some were learned the hard way, but I guess that’s how you learn best...

In part one of our segmentation series, we discussed the importance of and rationale behind market segmentation. Let's take a closer look at actual implementation of market segmentation. The biggest segmentation error that people make is to start with the "who" or "what" and segmenting the market using criteria such as industry verticals, company size or geography and other dimensions because this data is easy to gather. Focusing on WHO a buyer is makes for more easily observable and actionable data that can be used to define segments and their boundaries. But it doesn't get to the core of why companies are buying and what problem they are looking to solve (don’t get me wrong, demographics are still an important factor in the segmentation process, but they shouldn't drive the first steps of segmentation). Also, this approach often fails to identify new, un-served, profitable segments formed around buyer problems, needs and behavioral patterns t...