The Value of Adopting a Product First Mindset in Your Business with Tim SouloRead Time: 9 minutes

2022-03-20T17:50:42-04:00

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Growth hacks are a dime a dozen in the B2B SaaS space, and it’s easy for founders of digital products to get carried away with implementing them. Doing so takes a lot of resources and dedicated people to perform tests, read and understand metrics, analyze performance, and implement changes to your marketing tactics. In many cases, this focus on “hacking” the sales system can take precious resources away from your product, and by extension, your bottom-line.

This is why Tim Soulo of Ahrefs says it’s better to put your resources toward creating a better product if you want to see a jump in your sales and total revenue. It’s called a product-first mindset.

Keep reading or watch the video above to find out the best ways to make this mindset shift work for your business.

Adopt a Product First Mindset

No matter what marketing tactics, growth hacks, or sales gimmicks you use, your ability to secure a fixed income for your business will always boil down to customers and how they feel about your business and product. Word of mouth marketing is a major factor in most people’s buying decisions, more so than online reviews. The long-term success of your business depends on your ability to listen to what your customers are saying and act on it.

Ask yourself and your customers what’s missing with your product and what would be the next best thing. If you aim to help your customers solve their issues, they’ll be more apt to buy your product rather than a competitor’s. However, tricking customers into buying a subpar product through hacks won’t help them and can have a negative impact on your ability to retain those customers and get their vote of confidence. This is because people tend to invest in products they know work well. The more helpful and innovative your product is, the more likely people will be to continue investing in your company and recommend you to their friends.

And if you’re wondering how to find out what would make your product more innovative, it’s simple! You don’t need any fancy tools, just good old-fashioned conversation. Attend conferences, reach out to current customers and members of your target audience, and ask people whether your tool is integrated into their work or business. If it isn’t, ask how you can help these individuals get more value out of your product, then implement the changes they suggest and analyze the results.

Metrics to Monitor

Typically, many businesses monitor metrics like CTR, conversion rate, and customer churn, but that’s not actually necessary for business growth. Instead of keeping a close eye on every stage of the conversion funnel, look at your bottom-line.

Ask yourself how many paid users you have today. How many did you have last quarter, last month, or last year? What is your revenue now compared to before? Your answers to these questions are critical if you want to see any success with your product, as the information can help you learn what you’re doing wrong and give you the ability to up your game to make more people stick with you for their needs.

This is what’s called a “No BS” marketing strategy, and it doesn’t just extend to your product itself. It also involves the ways you talk about your product.

Invest in “No BS” Marketing

Besides their focus on growth hacking, companies often get a lot wrong with their marketing strategies. This is especially obvious in content marketing, where blogs are set up with arbitrary KPIs like a regular posting schedule, rather than with the purpose of driving traffic to the company website.

It doesn’t matter how often you post if your content doesn’t reach target customers. You do this by ranking for target keywords on Google. Remember, your mindset should be geared toward helping customers solve their problems. There are two ways to do that while keeping your product value in mind.

  1. Target people who are actively searching for products like yours.
  2. Advertise and develop content to reach your target audience with a high-value solution they may not have thought of.

Here’s an example to help put these two scenarios in perspective. Let’s say your business sells medication to help with back pain. A keyword phrase people in the first group may be searching for is “back pain supplements”. Members of the second group, on the other hand, may search for something along the lines of “how to get rid of back pain.”

The key to accessing both groups is knowing what people are searching for, discovering searches and keywords competitors haven’t discovered or thought of yet, and developing a product that’s so good, it’s a no-brainer to invest in.

The best part?

If the product you’re selling is awesome and you’re actively helping members of your target audience, there’s no need for you to hire a huge sales team. Your “No BS”, product-first marketing strategy will do the work of bringing in revenue for you.

Simply put, happy customers are the best salespeople. And if your product is amazing, your bottom-line will likely be amazing too. That’s why a product-first marketing strategy is a must for any business looking to succeed long-term.

KEY INSIGHTS

  • Ask yourself what you can do to improve your product, not what you can do to bring in more customers or make more sales.
  • Your blog works as a sales team because it’s basically a sales team for your product. If there’s no way to promote your product when writing an article, don’t write an article.
  • There’s no need to study the conversion funnel. Instead, look at your bottom line to determine whether your business efforts are working.

TIM’S TAKEAWAYS

  • Happy customers are the best salespeople, and people are more likely to listen to personal recommendations than online product reviews.
  • Value is key to business growth. Without it, nobody will feel the need to invest in your product.
  • Focus your resources and people on making your product the best it can possibly be and you’ll see the growth you’re looking for.

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