14 Lessons from 3 to 24Mn Within 8 Months

I've helped a startup 8x their growth starting from $3MN. 

It felt almost unrealistic to achieve this.

I've helped a startup 8x their growth starting from $3MN. 

It felt almost unrealistic to achieve this.

Some key lessons were:

1/ Find out your wedge and double down on it

Our wedge was our unique point-of-view.

The product was shifting the education space drastically.

I can give a similar example from another brand -- Tonal: World was shifting more work and work out from home. Tonal's wedge is that it gives you the consistency to work out at home which gets you in shape with an at-home-smart-gym + coach.

2/ It's never one person, always a team.

You need 3 kinds of players: a visionary, executor and processor.

I was the executor, my boss a visionary and my other two key teammates were amazing at processing and making it work.

Lesson: Find a great combination that feels like magic.

3/ Category creation and innovation do pay off.

Our product, like Tonal, created its category and innovated the education field.

It was a unique sub-category and take on education. The world is moving to homeschooling faster.

The timing was right in this case.

4/Product-channel fit is always evolving.

Products are built to fit with channels. Channels do not mold to products.

I grew the product with solely two channels i.e. Google Ads & Facebook ads.

Then, I found Tiktok working for us. I didn't diversify for the sake of it rather we found a new channel fit.

And then newsletter paid marketing started working for us.

So, it's always evolving. We should keep 10% of the marketing budget to try new channels.

5/ Brand storytelling makes a huge difference.

Instead of selling our point of view only, we sold transformation.

Our customers saw a huge difference in 6 months after using the product.

We made them heroes. We told their stories. We showed their transformation.

6/ Authority is a psychological principle that does make a difference.

Because of the founder's origin and product's idea formation under the hood of a public figure.

This was the single most important factor in why our paid ads worked.

We exploited the story because it scroll stopped and made people pay attention.

Credibility and authority -- how can you find it for your brand?

Here's a tactic that you can use: Find one or two mega-influencer, and give them free advisory share on your cap table, no questions asked. Use their credibility for your marketing.

7/ Commit to a niche, instead of trying to be everything to everyone.

Our niche: wealthy homeschooling and gifted kids' parents.

I just doubled down on the messaging that resonated with them.

It worked like a charm. What's a sub-niche you can try?

8/ Big ass vision and attainable yet unrealistic goal.

My motivation was to work for the vision but my boss's unrealistic goal pushed me even further.

We wanted to grow $3Mn to $10Mn within 3 months. I thought my boss was BS-ing.

But somehow we believed in it, and it worked. So, push yourself to have a little unrealistic goal.

9/ A channel fail doesn’t mean, you failed.

In my first month, I lost the company $40,000 on Google ads.

I spent $150K on influencer marketing, the ROAS was abysmal.

You can learn about my influencer marketing efforts here.

Failing is growth. Failing is part of figuring out. I figured out Google ads, and sure I would have figured out influencer marketing assuming I would have given enough time.

10/ Your pricing defines how fast you grow.

I've worked for 3 cost-effective brands, and 2 high-priced products. I have high- priced products grow faster.

You get the best customers who are ready to commit.

Our product was expensive so it disqualified a lot of bad customers.

Pricing also made it exclusive to a select audience.

Our CAC to LTV ratio was 1:10.

Lesson: Start pricing your product higher, not lower.

11 / Refine and scale your existing channels

My Google ads were working fine but I hired a specialist.

At scale, hire a specialist to do their job or at least some dedicated.

Below were the changes we made to our Google ads.

12/ Rapid experimentation with messaging --> documenting learning

Most organizations are experimenting but not documenting.

When you don't document, the new folks will make the same mistakes.

We tested weekly what messaging resonated on our homepage.

This gave us deeper insights.

Why rapid though? When you have a budget, you are fighting against time, not money.

13/ Activation to get unstuck.

We were getting 10-15% leads on our home but we didn't convert them enough.

After talking to customers, I learned that people had nuanced questions and wanted to get closer to the founding team.

We added:

• Educational webinars

• Orientation webinars

• 15-mins AMA calendar (the product was a "considered purchase")

Lesson: Don't just convert, activate.

14/ Make it easier to pay and gauge intent.

If your product has a demand, and you see leads but not enough conversions.

Chances are that you have too much friction for your customers to pay.

Our sign-up flow took 2-3 days for someone to pay. We made it 5mins by adding Typeform (40% conversion lead to paid).

Everyone started paying.

The key lesson is:

• Reduce friction to pay

• Increase motivation by answering objections

Voila! Our sign-ups went through the roof.

But there were a ton of mistakes we did. But these are the lessons I am taking away with me. And if you don't remember anything, just remember this: " Big ass vision and attainable yet unrealistic goal."

Which one is your favorite?

________________

Course of the week - Growth Marketing Examined

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I love Alex's emails and I keep most of them unread to really digest them well.

I am an avid reader but still, I haven't finished these unread emails because they need my proper attention:

Learn more about Growth Marketing Examined (you won't regret trying).

Marketing Product of Week - HelpScout

I believe HelpScout is the best and most affordable intercom alternative. It just doesn't do a great job of "customer education" but rather helps you rank on SEO.

Because help docs have long tail questions, they help you convert better and higher.

If you are early in your journey or not satisfied with your help docs, try HelpScout they have a chat, help docs, bots, and whatnot.

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Happy growing,

Aazar Ali Shad

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