What Leadfeeder was lacking in salespeople back in the early days, we made up for in our adherence to a high growth business model<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our approach involved a balancing act between the cost to acquire a customer (CAC) and monetization (LTV). And our strategy, in particular, was one that emphasized a preference around inbound marketing tactics, automated sales, and partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On our journey to becoming one of the best lead generation tools<\/a> to add your marketing stack, patience has been key. Just as important as keeping our users\u2019 perspectives at the forefront of every decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are five growth lessons we\u2019ve picked up along the way \u2014 no salespeople required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Balance isn\u2019t just a self-care buzzword. In the business world, it\u2019s a necessary characteristic in your approach to acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this, we mean you can\u2019t go all-in on one inbound marketing channel and neglect the others. Just like a salesperson shouldn\u2019t solely rely on networking event attendance for connecting with new potential prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is because \u2014 and it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise \u2014 digital channels are interconnected. What you do on one will inevitably lead a visitor down a path toward another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re picking and choosing what to optimize based solely on what you think will drive the most<\/em> leads, you\u2019re likely leading quality<\/em> leads to a dead end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same vein, you\u2019re going to need to spend money. This is because organic channels, like SEO, take time to optimize. They\u2019re long-term games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paid tactics, on the other hand, help to feed the beast in the short-term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to be feeding both sides of the equation in getting people through the door if you\u2019re ever going to figure out how to keep them around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you build out strategy around where to put your time and money on the acquisition side, allow us to offer suggestions based on what\u2019s worked for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On our journey to $150 MRR, we\u2019ve invested heavily in the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s worth mentioning that we spent a fair amount of time building a solid foundation (such as with website content) before spending a dime on pointing people to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every piece of the puzzle will inevitably evolve over time with the influx of both visitors and performance data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of Google Ads, we\u2019ve found a surprising amount of success from word-of-mouth<\/a>. Or maybe it\u2019s not so surprising when you consider the rise of a tactic like influencer marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At its core, influencer marketing relies on the value people put in recommendations received from individuals \u2014 those they align themselves with based on shared interests and values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t even have to know an influencer personally to feel as though what they have to say can be trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As our user base has grown, so too have our referrals. Part of this relies on the quality of our product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n People have to believe in the efficacy of a product before putting their name behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another aspect of driving word-of-mouth requires making it easy for people to help us do so. From this end, we\u2019ve supported referrals with something we\u2019ll refer to as the viral loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, users can extend their free trial of our premium Leadfeeder product when they share it with their network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This not only works to drive more leads but more quality<\/em> leads. After all, our users wouldn\u2019t put their names behind our product if they wouldn\u2019t vouch for it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a constant loop of product use, love, and sharing that continues spinning as long as there\u2019s a need met and the means to easily get the word out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversions are worth far less than your ability to retain customers over time. This ties back to the idea that the strongest startups are built to maximize growth, not profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of conversions as indicative in the short-term of a quality offering. Retention indicates a quality product in the long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we first launched Leadfeeder, it was an entirely free product. We knew we had an offering that was enticing enough to get people through the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We spent that year with our heads down in product use patterns and regularly solicited user feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iterating and learning from what resonated most with our user base allowed us to develop a premium offering people would actually be interested in paying for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what was free for our users upfront was anything but free for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We invested upwards of \u20ac500,000 over the course of that first year to keep ourselves afloat and develop a product people would want to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of the product itself, this also meant developing a support system<\/a> prospects and customers alike could depend on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We offered free, 30-minute online training sessions, built out automated Intercom campaigns for responding quickly to paid users, and developed support content in the form of webinars, case studies, and blogs to upsell and educate relevant audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, when you\u2019re thinking about retention, aim for a net churn of less than 2% per month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have high churn<\/a>, keep working on your product-market fit \u2014 don\u2019t simply throw more money at acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about user behavior metrics from two different angles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On one side, you should be paying attention to the buyer\u2019s journey from lead to sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other, you should be monitoring how your current customers are using the product \u2014 and the frequency with which they\u2019re doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set up and actually use<\/em> your Google Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create UTM tags and goals with funnels. Use Google Tag Manager and pay attention to traffic sources that convert campaign optimization, and track visitor conversion rates and funnels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you become more familiar with these dashboards, you\u2019ll be able to identify opportunities for personalization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, we developed landing pages that catered to keywords of interest among our audience and drove higher conversion rates as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Welcome back pages for repeat webinar visitors worked to achieve the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a word of warning, try not to overcomplicate marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) around lead generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve found that qualified lead volume is the single most important lead generation KPI to track \u2014 alongside these four other metrics<\/a> for keeping your efforts focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve already touched on this point a bit but it\u2019s important enough to warrant its own dedicated takeaway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aside from support \u2014 from both inbound marketing and operations \u2014 product is at the core of your growth marketing success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you haven\u2019t nailed your product-market-fit, building customer loyalty is going to prove an uphill battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to value your customer\u2019s feedback as much as you do your own assumptions and intentions. This requires a willingness to iterate fast and frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make it easy for your prospects to sign up and get started with a free trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For us, this meant positioning clear and enticing CTAs with email feeds. And encouraging sign-ups without credit card requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, having a credit card on file makes it easier to shimmy customers into the cycle of automated monthly subscriptions. But it also creates another barrier to entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re thinking with a long-term lens and developing a quality product that\u2019ll be worth paying for come trial\u2019s end, then the money will come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it hasn\u2019t been made clear already, we\u2019re big proponents of quality traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a driver behind our product offering \u2014 providing businesses with greater transparency around who their website visitors are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than spend money on a sales team to push your product, invest in creating the best possible product<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With enough backup from your inbound marketing efforts, it can practically sell itself over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/lh--t__D91RWd7YlOO25AlP7ZG2JWpEp01HpULtWcCRF8VM0T_K2ze1NMK5yo7ZYYEeAVkWpAo-mwa1IHJ_uniCfZ-YCyZP6gn451lhPbgoUhCbpfk_IKWUhNj5sUtQxXyVkntPalhoXlxN.png\")
#1: Invest upfront in both paid and organic acquisition channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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#2: Don\u2019t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#3: Support every conversion with a plan for retention<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#4: Monitor user behavior metrics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#5: Make sure you have a product worth selling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n