Product Led Growth (PLG) can mean different things to different teams. The “degree” of PLG can boil down to the product’s complexity and therefore the speed of activation. Let’s assume the prospect has the desire to try your product and discover if it does what it “says on the tin”, then it’s a question of carving out time to dig in and adopt. If users can’t get through activation without pain, the likelihood to adopt goes down.
In concept this sounds obvious. However, in practice a lot of aspects need to align along the user journey, which isn’t easy, especially if you’re a small team, already stretched.
Product led, doesn’t mean product only. Make sure to document the actual goals of your PLG strategy. If the goal is to drive ARR, then you need to lean more on the product and the relevant onboarding and learning required to drive conversions. If the goal is to get users into the product early which may then take expert guidance or more hands-on help, you’re really doing a PLG – SLG combination or hybrid approach. Of course, that’s ok but knowing exactly where you stand is key to success. This can also evolve over time as your product matures and you may even decide to target different user or accounts with a different approach.
Conversion is Your Point of Inflection
Getting users into your product is a natural goal #1. The real question – especially if you’re driving revenue – comes down to conversion. Getting more trials every quarter is great but what if only a fraction convert to actively using or buying. Achieving that growth goal becomes a lot harder.
Quantity with low conversion will eventually hurt you. Investigate whether you have all necessary journey touches aligned for the user. Are you really ready to push on promotions? If users can’t easily activate, then adopt, you will waste resources. Certainly you will learn as you go. It’s knowing what to improve that counts. Deploying PLG in a phased approach is okay but knowing where you have shortfalls is critical to success.
Product Marketers. How Should You Prioritize?
Of course, deeply understanding users and their pain is step one for any product marketer. Full immersion into their day-in-the-life is necessary in order to craft your user and buyer journeys. For B2B SaaS with a higher ASP, it can get complex when there’s a buying committee to reach. This means you have to know when to lean or flex different value messages along the journey path. For a PLG approach, here’s what product marketers should focus on:
Get Product Pointy
Crystallize what your product does and how it will change the user’s daily life. There’s a lot of great products to drive in-app adoption – Walkme, Appcues and Pendo – but don’t count on them to do all the lifting. Clearly describe your features, value and difference before the user gets to the trial. Stay one step ahead of where you want them to go on the path.Step-by-step
Break down the journey steps into snack-able, easy to digest chunks. When new prospects get overwhelmed, they tend to log-out. Don’t ask them to do the thinking and heavy lifting. Tools like Amplitude give you those data insights to understand usage and drop-off points.Where Is Your User Headed?
Users want to see the full journey map. What’s the end-game? Mature products with a wider range of capabilities or add-on modules require more nurturing and engagement. Hubspot mastered this early which has served them well, even as they expanded beyond marketing automation and to CRM. Users will invest the time for a good pay-off, even a long-term path. But they must know what that looks like and how they can get there. Learning content and libraries of how-tos, docs and videos are imperative. You also need to update consistently as you roll out relevant features. And don’t forget about the oft-requested roadmap.Tell Users Where You’re Going
Loyal fans want to know what you’re working on now and about to release. They also would like to know the long-term path you’re on. Join your vision and mission statements with product delivery. Be consistent. We know active users will not only give you feedback but will advocate for you, especially when you listen to their needs and requests.Make Price Your Secret Weapon
Don’t ask future customers to do the work for you. Make it easy. Once they’re ready to try, the next obvious question is “how much”. I’ve seen first hand where this is either not online, it’s hidden or difficult to understand. As buyers we’ve all witnessed situations where you need a calculator to make sense of the price sheet or you become frustrated by hidden costs or unexpected terms and conditions. Make it easy to understand and communicate up and down their chain.
Be Your Users Advocate and Amplify Their Voice
If you’re marketing a product and building a community, stay close to your product and engineering teams. Even if the deal cycle includes sales, technical experts, customer success and advocacy, the product should take the lead in a PLG model. Become an advocate for your community, give clear input and feedback to the product team. Working together as one cohesive team is the only way forward in a PLG company.
My views and recommendations are based on first hand experience at various startups that operated with a PLG first approach. Words are not AI generated. Image is created by MidJourney with prompt “hands-on keyboard using a digital product that makes a user happy and drives revenue growth”.