Companies with product-led growth strategies attract users by focusing on product value. These companies typically allow users to experience a product for free and collect customer feedback through in-app messaging flows and feedback micro surveys.
This self-service trial or freemium pricing model aligns with buyer trends toward relying on first-hand product experiences and social proof rather than salesperson assistance throughout the buying journey. This allows businesses to lower their customer acquisition costs and improve retention rates.
Invest in a Great Product
A top-notch product is a necessity for a company aiming to become product-led. Companies that focus on product growth invest more money in their products, ensuring they’re creating an excellent user experience. This allows their customers to experience the full value of the product, and increases customer lifetime value.
Product-led companies also utilize data to understand the product’s value. With event-based analytics, they can make decisions based on user behavior and create a personalized product experience. This also allows them to target in-product messages and automated marketing to their most valuable users.
Product-Led Growth is a popular go-to-market strategy for SaaS companies that aligns all of their resources around their product. It has helped companies like Survey Monkey and Slack reach stratospheric heights, and it is a key reason why they are still successful even as they grow into major players in their markets. It is a strategy that has gained popularity due to its low costs compared to traditional marketing and sales strategies.
Create a Robust Onboarding Experience
With talent acquisition costs skyrocketing and job search times shrinking, companies are competing for top employees with higher expectations than ever. A robust onboarding process is a crucial part of any employee’s experience, fostering new hire loyalty and reducing turnover.
Unlike traditional sales-led businesses, product-led growth strategies put the product front and center of all go-to-market efforts. This allows the product to attract new users and convert them without spending tens of thousands on ad campaigns or hiring additional salespeople.
For example, a freemium strategy is often used by product-led companies to get their products into potential customers’ hands with minimal barriers. This strategy is often paired with onboarding that focuses on easing the pain points of initial use and showing the value that the product can provide from the outset. Personalization is another critical component to this approach, with technology enabling personalized onboarding experiences that are relevant and contextual for every user. The result is a better buying experience for everyone involved.
Provide Incentives for Loyalty
A well-designed loyalty program can help your business retain customers and boost customer lifetime value. Customers will be more likely to continue buying from you if they feel like they are receiving something beneficial in return, such as discounts or freebies.
The types of incentives that work best will depend on your product and target audience. For example, you may want to consider a points-based system that rewards your loyal buyers with benefits, such as freebies or merchandise, based on the number of purchases they make.
Another way to incentivize your loyal customers is to reward them for their feedback on your products or services. Alternatively, you can offer a special birthday discount or other time-sensitive promotion to your customers. Using unique digital experiences to incentivize your customers can also be a great way to build brand loyalty. This could include offering a discounted shipping rate for your customers if they share their purchase on social media or give your business a recommendation to their friends.
Analyze Customer Data
Product-led growth (PLG) is the business model in which a company’s product becomes the main driver of acquisition, engagement, retention, and scalable expansion. It essentially moves aspects of sales, marketing, customer service, and education inside the product for improved contextual relevance and a more seamless experience for end users.
When a user discovers a product through a marketing campaign, they typically schedule a demo or get passed on to the sales team for more information. In contrast, with PLG, prospective customers gain direct access to the product via free trials and freemium pricing models before deciding whether or not it is right for them.
The brand can then use the product data to weed out low-potential leads and target individuals who are more likely to convert to paying customers. This allows them to reduce the time and cost of acquiring new customers, while also improving customer retention and lifetime value. This is possible through a combination of in-app messaging flows, feedback micro surveys, and guided tours of the product.