Thread by @coreyhainesco

1/ It’s now been one month since joining @Barametrics as the head of growth. Wanted to share some observations about where we’re going, the market, and what I’ve been up to…

2/ Even though it was December and most people were either getting ready for vacation, on vacation, or probably mentally on vacation, I managed to spend most of my time doing customer research and development.

3/ This includes:
- Sending out an 11 question survey to all our customers
- Reaching out to canceled customers & learning why they churn
- Hopping on the phone with customers and doing demos for trialing users
- Digging into marketing & product analytics

4/ Following my own growth philosophy, I’m starting from the bottom of the funnel and working up. I subscribe to the AARRR framework (affectionately known as Pirate Metrics) and find it to be the most helpful to think about and plan for growth.

Why “bottom-up”?

5/ Working top-down usually results in a “leaky bucket” funnel situation. If you don’t have an effective and efficient way to retain your customer base, generate word of mouth, and produce revenue, what’s the point in acquiring and activating new customers?

6/ The best argument I can make for this kind of approach is: if not now, then when?

Pricing, referrals, and retention are the most fundamental components of a business.

7/ Working on the Revenue, Referral, and Retention parts of the funnel first allows you confidence that acquiring and activating new customers won’t be in vain, and will actually bring you the growth you desire.

8/ With that said, pricing is one of the first things I’ll be focusing on. Not exactly your usual first growth experiment 😂

Pricing is one of the hardest things to nail and is also difficult since it needs to evolve with the business, products, and features.

9/ The two key principles I’m keeping in mind for pricing are:
1. Align your pricing with the desired outcome of your customer.
2. Pricing usually comes down to positioning yourself as the (1) low-cost leader (2) best value leader or (3) premium price leader.

10/ In order to make your pricing compelling, you have to have strong messaging and positioning — which is what I’m working on in conjunction.

“Is messaging and positioning really a part of a Growth role?”

11/ Messaging and positioning is a part of every role.

If you can’t clearly communicate (1) your customers’ problems & desired outcome and (2) why your product is the best solution for them to alleviate their problems & achieve their desired outcome, then no growth will happen.

12/ Speaking about making growth happen… @WilsonGHung recently shared a thread on why the golden era of DNVB (digitally native vertical brands) is over, due to first-movers advantage and rising ad-costs which make maintaining a strong LTV:CAC ratio virtually impossible.

13/ Here's the link to his tweet:

https://twitter.com/WilsonGHung/status/1080236415219322880

Something similar is going on, or is about to happen, in SaaS.

- Growth Hacking is now a curse word.
- There’s more content being produced now than ever before, which makes it even harder to rank, get clicks, etc.

14/ (continued...)
- Social media (for SaaS brands at least) is dead
- Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn Ads are expensive, competitive, and inconclusive.
- I could go on…

15/ @AndrewChen’s Law Of Shitty Clickthroughs perfectly articulates why companies can’t rely on paid advertising.

andrewchen.co/the-law-of-shi…

16/ @randfish explains the difficulties of content marketing in today’s market

sparktoro.com/blog/can-you-s…

What we're really in is the golden era of the customer...

17/ More solutions, more content, more ads, more marketing = more power to the customer.

Just like DNVB are experiencing now, SaaS companies will have to compete on brand, customer experience, operational efficiency, and what marketing advantages they have left.

18/ So where do we go from here?

As we work to grow @Baremetrics to the next level, what do we do? What marketing channels do we employ? What kind of growth process do we use?

There’s obviously no single answer. But I do know that it’s important to go back to the fundamentals.

19/ Something I’ve really been digging into recently is principles & frameworks. Here are a few especially helpful principles and frameworks I’ve been using and developing…

20/ @ryanckulp’s Who/Where framework.

“My process is very simple. It’s who is your customer and where is your customer.”

21/ I’ve expanded this to also include What and Why, for what your customers are trying to achieve (jobs to be done) and why your solution is the best for your customers (unique selling proposition)

everyonehatesmarketers.com/marketing-with…

22/ @bbalfour’s Product/Market/Channel/Model Fit

“The difference between the $100M+ companies, and those that struggle are the ones that are able to make four pieces in a puzzle fit…”

brianbalfour.com/essays/product…

23/ As mentioned before… The AARRR framework, aka Pirate Metrics

“AARRR stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue and is pretty much the bee’s knees when it comes to...

24/ understanding your customers, their journey and optimizing your funnel as well as setting some valuable and actionable metric goals for your startup.”

medium.com/@ms.mbalke/aar…

25/ I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion

“Understanding these shortcuts and employing them in an ethical manner can significantly increase the chances that someone will be persuaded by your request.”

influenceatwork.com/principles-of-…

Edit: *Baremetrics* lol