🏴☠️ ⚡️ Issue #14: Understanding Existing Channels & Community Based Buyer Journeys
Welcome! This newsletter is dedicated to acquiring and operating Micro SaaS firms. Join us every other Saturday morning for deal analysis, operating frameworks / templates, and other musings...
What’s up fam?
Hope everyone is sliding right on into summer sunshine and it’s been a wonderful week. With that, Skaling Ventures continues to evolve and iterate so this newsletter will do the same. Moving forward, please expect an issue like this while we are in between sprints — where we’ll elaborate on our OKRs and lean into the tactics and learning lessons on the path of execution.
This is the first issue of its kind so we’d be super grateful for feedback in the comments 🙏
Oh! And some fun announcements to kick us off too 🎥 🎤 🎧 📺
🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT — We launched a youtube channel and a podcast (links below)!
🛠️ OKR TEAR DOWN — A look at our activities, learning, and the path forward executing on a ‘Comprehensive understanding of our ideal customers and existing channels for acquiring trial users’
🤟 MISCELLANEOUS — A presentation for NextRise 2023 Seoul on ‘Micro SaaS & The Evolving Landscape of Private Equity’
Let’s dive in…
🚨ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR THE VISUALLY INCLINED —
FOR THE LISTENERS —
🛠️ OKR TEAR DOWN
As a point of departure, I’ve included the full OKR below to set the foundation for a teardown of our approach thus far…
OBJECTIVE: Comprehensive understanding of our ideal customers and existing channels for acquiring trial users
KEY RESULTS:
Develop a quantitative definition of our ICP based on user data and market research.
Understand how trial users find us by conducting customer surveys
Understand how trial users find us by summarizing findings from GA4 / similar
Increase daily website traffic to harvest more data (as a function of executing content playbook)
Identify ~3x optimizations to existing channels
Stable / improved new trial users per week following new website launch
Now that we’re generally oriented, the plan is to dig into a selection of activities and learning lessons. We’ll wrap with where we’re at today and the path forward.
Put simply, this is what we’ve done to understand our existing channels and how we plan to carry the momentum into our first acquisition channel experiment for new users. Please note: This won’t touch on a quant definition of our ICP or our findings from digital analytics…
A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF METHODS AND TACTICS TO UNCOVER EXISTING CHANNELS:
1. Understand Current User Behavior:
The first step to uncovering your firm’s existing channels for website traffic is to understand your users’ behavior. This can be achieved by:
Google Analytics: Use Google Analytics or a similar website analytics tool to understand where your website traffic is coming from. This will help you identify the sources of your traffic, such as direct traffic, organic search, referral traffic, social media, etc.
Customer Surveys: Conduct surveys of your current and past trial users to understand how they discovered your product. This can be a simple questionnaire asking them about their discovery process, what attracted them to your product, and what made them sign up for a trial.
2. Implement Conversion Tracking:
You need to understand not just where traffic is coming from, but also which channels are leading to conversions i.e. trial sign-ups. Tools like Google Analytics can help with this as well.
Setting up Goals in Google Analytics: This feature allows you to track when someone completes a specific action on your website, like signing up for a trial.
Use UTM Parameters: These are tags added to a URL which are recognized by Google Analytics and can help identify the source, medium, and campaign which led to a click.
3. Understand the User Journey:
Understanding the full user journey can provide insights into which channels or touchpoints contribute to trial sign-ups.
Multi-channel Funnels in Google Analytics: This feature can help you understand the various touchpoints a user had with your website before signing up for a trial.
User Journey Mapping: Create a detailed map of the customer journey, from the initial point of contact to signing up for a trial. This can help identify key touchpoints and channels in the user journey.
4. Analyze SEO and Organic Traffic:
Since you suspect that most of your traffic is organic, it’s crucial to understand your SEO performance.
Google Search Console: This tool can provide insights into your website’s organic search performance, including which search queries are driving traffic to your site.
Keyword Analysis: Analyze the keywords that are driving traffic to your site and understand if these align with your product offering and target audience. Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can help with this.
5. Monitor Social Media:
If you have an active presence on social media, it might be contributing to your trial sign-ups.
Social Media Analytics: Use the analytics provided by each platform (like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, etc.) to understand the impact of your social media activity on website traffic and trial sign-ups.
6. Understand Referral Traffic:
Referral traffic can be a significant source of trial sign-ups, so it’s important to understand which websites are referring traffic to you.
Referral Traffic in Google Analytics: This report can help you understand which external websites are driving traffic to your site.
7. Create a Reporting Structure:
Lastly, it’s crucial to have a robust reporting structure in place to continuously monitor and understand your traffic sources and trial sign-ups.
Data Dashboard: Use a tool like Google Data Studio to create a dashboard that pulls in data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other tools to provide a comprehensive view of your traffic and conversion data.
UNDERSTANDING HOW TRIAL USERS FIND US BY CONDUCTING SURVEYS
Well executed surveys are glorious (and insanely challenging). Compared to interviews (the other typical primary research method), they are an efficient way to gather data, quickly achieve an interesting sample size, and draw conclusions (or inform a hypothesis). Though, as mentioned, they are certainly a dark art and involve a range of tradeoffs and considerations like the following…
SURVEY TRADEOFFS & CONSIDERATIONS:
Substance vs likelihood of a response — let’s get as much information as we can, though every added question makes it less likely our busy and distracted users will respond
Structured responses that simplify things for the user and are easy for us to organize / analyze vs leading the respondent — a blank slate to respond with whatever is often paralyzing so it helps to simplify by including drop down response options and the like, though this obviously restricts the responses you will recieve and that can be detrimental to the task at hand
Incentives — if the information is valuable enough, what are you willing to pay per response?
THE SURVEY WE SENT:
It’s early in the game for us so we’re still eager to validate our assumptions re the core jobs to be done (JTBD) and Portfolio Company’s (Port Co) points of differentiation so we broadened the survey beyond the root motivation, which is to better understand how we’re acquiring trial users. This was risky, but it worked out.
Question #1: When did you first realize you needed a tool like port co (what was going on in your world)?
Response Type / Reasoning — long-form text; it’s considered best practice to start with an open ended and long-form text response to get the respondent comfortable and talking, so to speak
Question #2: What jobs (or use cases) are the most important for you to get done?
Response Type / Reasoning — 4x JTBD statements with a 1 (not important) to 4 (very important) rating; ratings are quick and smooth, though these def lead the respondent
Question #3: How did you come across Port Co?
Response Type / Reasoning — Single selection dropdown (Internet Search, Word of Mouth, Social Media, etc.); again, quick and easy (leading them into the below)
Question #4: Can you elaborate a bit on your answer above? (For instance, if it was a google search, what did you search for? If an industry site, which one?)
Response Type / Reasoning — long-form text; this question is critical, because the above tells you very little, though it points the respondent in the right direction. Now they can elaborate and give you info that’s actually valuable
Question #5: What made Port Co stand out?
Response Type / Reasoning — Single selection dropdown (Core Features, Pricing, Customer Reviews, etc.); useful, though leading
💥 WHAT WE LEARNED 💥:
The vast majority of responders came across Port Co via an industry-specific digital community (think: Facebook Group, Reddit Forum, etc.). Thus, the buyer journey (and therefore how we acquire trial users) is heavily influenced by digital communities (aka Facebook Groups, Reddit Forums, etc.). An Ambassador / Affiliate Program is a perfect way to test this channel and we are proceeding accordingly.
COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE AFFILIATE PROGRAM:
Competitive Commission Rates: Provide affiliates with a worthwhile commission for each new customer they bring. This could be a fixed amount per new customer or a percentage of the customer's spend over a certain period.
Clear Terms and Conditions: Create a clear and straightforward agreement outlining the terms and conditions of your program. This should include how and when affiliates will be paid, what marketing practices are allowed, and other key details.
Reliable Tracking System: Use software to track the activity of your affiliates. This should track clicks, conversions, and sales, and attribute them correctly to the right affiliate.
Marketing Support: Provide your affiliates with resources to help them succeed. This could include marketing collateral like banners, social media posts, email templates, etc., as well as training and advice.
Strong Communication: Regularly communicate with your affiliates. Share updates, success stories, tips, and best practices, and also listen to their feedback and concerns.
Transparent Reporting: Affiliates should have access to a dashboard where they can see their performance stats, earnings, and payouts.
AFFILIATE PROGRAM LAUNCH STRATEGY:
Soft Launch with Loyal Customers: Start by inviting a small group of your loyal customers to join your affiliate program. This will allow you to test and refine your program before rolling it out more broadly.
Public Launch: Once you've ironed out any issues during the soft launch, announce your affiliate program to all your customers. Use your website, social media channels, email newsletters, and other communication channels to do this.
Outreach to Influencers in your Industry: Wedding photographers are community-based, as you mentioned. You can reach out to influencers within these communities and invite them to join your program.
Regular Updates and Improvement: Continually monitor your program's performance and look for ways to improve. Also, regularly communicate updates and successes with your affiliates to keep them engaged and motivated.
OUR SCORECARD FOR AFFILIATE PROGRAM TOOLING:
More to come!
🤟 MISCELLANEOUS
It was an absolute privilege to be involved with NextRise this year (hoping to get out to Seoul next year!). The below is a ~30min take on the subject with an agenda that covers:
How I got here
What is Micro SaaS?
Case Study: Example Acquisition
How to get involved?