Weak arguments are like chains: If one claim breaks, the whole argument falls apart. Lawyers—i.e., people who argue as a profession—know better. I know, you’re not a lawyer. But your readers are more like a jury than you might think. The hyperavailability of online content means that readers are, in effect, constantly hovering over the close tab button, ready to quit reading. You might not be a lawyer, but your readers are certainly judging.
Branded search queries are used by people who already know your brand, or are at the very least familiar. Those searching your brand name directly are more likely to convert into customers compared to those who randomly find you in search. Branded search is a huge (albeit neglected) part of any sales funnel: About 50% of people will type [brand name reviews] or something similar in Google before buying.
Ann
Smarty
@
cxl seo
Sometimes growth work gets a bad reputation in the industry. Growth work is a powerful tool, but it’s important to remember what it’s not. Growth does not drive product-market fit, it’s not about manipulating people, and it’s not scattershot “hacking.” As the product leader for Facebook Marketplace since it started, I’m often asked how we grew it. The good news is that many of the principles used to grow Marketplace can be applied to any product or company looking to expand.
You really should aim for > 100% NRR, even from the smallest of businesses. Yes, small businesses go under at a much higher rate than enterprises. And yes, there is far less to upsell at most tiny businesses. Traditionally, that has meant even 100% Net Revenue Retention can be tough when 20%-30% of your customers may be out of business in a given year! Yet we’ve still seen the Best in SaaS can do it. At least 100% NRR after $10m ARR.
There are still a lot of misconceptions about what customer success is all about in the SaaS universe. Customer success is exactly what the name says – customer success is dedicated to make customers (more) successful. This is the only reason why customers buy your product in the first place. They want to increase their revenue, save costs, improve their productivity or achieve an intangible goal like being free of pain.
As a business operator, you think about your business - a lot. Your customers, contrary to popular belief, do not. Your customers only think about you or your business when they need to. And unless something is going very well, or very poorly, they likely don’t think about you at all. This is actually a good thing. It means that your customers aren’t as receptive to your mistakes as you might think. But it also means that they won’t notice all the great things that you’re doing unless you tell them about it.
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Use a focused, unstressed, and low emotion vocal tone to be more persuasive. When you’re persuading someone (e.g. promotional videos, sales pitches), use a tone of voice that sounds: Focused (concentrated on what you’re saying; using a low-pitch voice helps), not stressed (confident of what you’re saying), and emotionally stable (calm and relaxed). You’ll be more likely to persuade successfully (e.g. sign up to your website, buy from you, etc.), because we believe speakers that sound focused and not emotional or stressed are more competent.
We’ve grown accustomed to the traditional set of SaaS metrics as just part of how to operate a SaaS business. It’s hard to conceive of what to do without metrics like CAC payback, LTV:CAC, average ACV, or the magic number. The reality is that the OG SaaS metrics still have a place, especially for companies following the top-down, subscription-based playbook. But we also need to expand how we define success for PLG and usage-based businesses.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the way in which a company brings a product or service to market. No matter how good your idea is, you need a go-to-market strategy. If successful, a go-to-market strategy will be your salvation and prevent you from failure. The question is, how do you develop a winning strategy? Which factors should you consider? Ultimately, the questions asked within a GTM strategy serve to deepen your understanding of your industry and target market so you can develop a product-market fit.
The biggest competition is a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are found in every industry. Spreadsheets can serve many professions. This is where Airtable has been able to thrive. The brilliance comes in through their ability to leverage user-generated content to start laying the bricks for what could be one of the most underrated yet powerful SEO moats in the world. All on the back of long tail search terms that are in high demand and further showcase the versatility of spreadsheets as the ultimate SaaS competitor.
From long sales cycles to trying to stand out from the sea of sameness, B2B companies face an uphill battle from the start. While thousands of B2B organizations struggle, plenty are able to develop long-term success. So what does it take? I recently surveyed and interviewed over 200+ B2B executives, marketing & sales leaders to find out exactly what challenges they currently face and what they are doing to overcome them. Let’s dive in.
On many SaaS sites, you’ll see a call-to-action to sign up for an account or try out a product — but clicking on the button then sends you to another page to fill in your email address (and often, click through again to fill out even more fields). By collecting the email address right next to the CTA, you remove a click for the visitor and a potential dropoff point for conversion. And, the email address you enter will carry through to the next page with the rest of the form.
The conference room door shut. Samantha and our sales manager sat down and dialed into the call. My team and I lined up around the glass wall of the conference room to watch it go down. Just 12 minutes later, she hung up and walked out. The team was glued to her, trying to read her expression. We waited. “He’ll sign after lunch,” she said through a grin. Sam, how did you close him? “I didn’t close him. I listened to him.”
As software has eaten the world, product has become the most important lever for a company’s success. But strategy is often misunderstood. The word strategy has been stretched to a point where it is almost devoid of meaning. Too often, the terms vision, mission, strategy, goals, and roadmap get conflated into a jumbled mess. Difficulty prioritizing is often a strategy issue, not an execution issue.
Starting growth-focused product teams is truly uncharted territory. All who journey here must have a firm belief that adventure is the keyword in misadventure. I’d like to note that my only experience coming into this role was what I’d read written by others in our emerging field. So the fact that you’re even reading this means you probably have as much experience as I had. If I’m practicing growth design, you can too.
