Autopilot started here, first deciding the pricing strategy and different features to include in the product. You need to test various demographics, behaviors, and interests to find which segments are most likely to purchase your products and services. You want to start finding those like-minded people who might also be interested in your products. They call it “The Acquire, Nurture, Grow Framework.” And it sounds a lot like the same customer journey that 71% of marketers already follow. Let’s run through each step to show you how this process works. Once they found their initial, core audience, Autopilot targeted users with similar demographics and interests to scale growth. Start nurturing new leads to create successful customers The next step in Autopilot’s funnel strategy is “Nurture.” The nurture stage involves cultivating a strong relationship with people who are using their service in the free-trial stage. Integrations work the same way for products. Next, let users test the product! Autopilot planned and tested everything from their funnel strategy to their offers and trial journeys to give the user the best experience they could.
Autopilot, the marketing automation company, was founded in 2012.
It took them two years to hit 2,500 customers, 24,500+ free trial sign-ups, and 21% month-over-month revenue growth.
They’ve also landed high-profile clients like Lyft, Microsoft, and CrunchBase in the process.
How did a brand new company manage that type of growth?
How have they launched like a rocket and never looked back?
The truth is that they planned for their growth before it even happened.
They’ve used customer journeys, funnels, and offers to pull in new customers faster than they ever could have imagined.
On top of that, they continue to grow their integrations, making them more appealing to a wider customer base.
I’ve launched a few of my own products over the years. I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s not easy.
However, I’ve learned a ton of lessons throughout the years.
Autopilot’s story resonates with my own experience. I’ve seen many of these problems and challenges firsthand.
The great news here is that their strategy is replicable!
I’ll walk you through their process. And I’ll share my own examples so that your product has the best chance to succeed.
Step 1. Define your growth strategy from the start
Most people approach the software business with a brilliant idea.
So they immediately get to work, building out the product themselves or hiring others to do it for them.
Most of the time this is already a mistake.
Obviously, the first problem is that you have no idea if anyone’s actually going to need what you’re building.
However, the second, more subtle issue is that your feature mix will ultimately dictate market positioning and price.
And this is what most people miss.
You need to analyze the market to see what your competition is doing before you simply assume that features Y and X will appeal to your target market.
Autopilot started here, first deciding the pricing strategy and different features to include in the product.
Check out this SaaS pricing/features graph from Autopilot’s CMO Guy Marion to get a sense of how this works in a real marketplace.
Let me break it down for you:
The Y axis demonstrates pricing and the X axis shows the complexity of features and integrations.
Autopilot, for example, falls under the low-price-point and low-complexity category.
They purposefully chose a “self-service” positioning before launching.
Their product is really cheap to integrate and also easy to use. Meanwhile, enterprise SaaS applications like NetSuite are more difficult to use and cost more than Autopilot.
This positioning strategy will now dictate everything else.
It will decide who their customers are. It will dictate their marketing strategies. And it will determine their sales process.
Don’t confuse marketing with just advertising or PR.
Because ultimately those two promotional elements rely on your product, pricing, and distribution strategies, too.
Step 2. Find your target audience
Knowing your audience is critical for delivering a product that people want and need.
When you’re new, nobody knows who you are. And they probably don’t recognize that they need your product or service, either.
Here’s a basic example.
You wouldn’t sell men’s shoes to a target market of women and expect high conversions, would you?
Obviously not!
So you have to take the time to develop target personas before you can scale to a large audience.
Facebook targeting is a great place to start.
You need to test various demographics, behaviors, and interests to find which segments are most likely to purchase your products and services.
Here’s how to get started.
First, head over to the Audience Insights section of the Facebook Business Manager.
Your Insights will help you find data on your current page interactions, likes, and followers.
Next, select “People connected to your page.”
This section of the Business Manager is a goldmine for your initial targeting efforts.
Start scanning for trends and patterns.
Basic demographics —like age range, gender, and location — can give you an easy starting point.
In this example, you can tell that women enjoy this business’s products more than men. And the bulk of the interest is coming from consumers age 25-44.
Immediately, you’ve already narrowed down a massive group into a smaller segment of people.
Next, you can inspect each tab, from demographics to page likes and even income levels.
The people liking and following your page are brand-aware.
You might not have a ton of in-depth audience information at this point.
That’s why even the average information from your total followers can help at first.
You want to start finding those like-minded people who might also be interested in your products.
Next, head over to create an awareness campaign on Facebook to further refine your audience.
Using awareness-style campaigns will give you an idea of how this new submarket of people will respond to your brand and products.
If they respond well, you now know who to focus on. If they don’t respond well, you just keep repeating the process until you find one that does.
Once you’ve selected the brand-awareness objective, create your audience and populate the data with the insights you just grabbed in the Business Manager.
Now, scroll down and populate the next section with the interests that your insights showed from the “Page Likes” section.
You can also grab the income levels and any other personalized data you could find.
Now start running ads.
You won’t know exactly who’s going to work best yet. So you’ll just have to change up your approach every few days.
Remember that your goal here isn’t to buy Facebook fans. You don’t want to do that.
Instead, the goal here is to identify potential customers. You’re going to come back and sell products or services to these people.
This strategy does require you to spend some money up front.
However, you can test the market with a free e-book or low-priced product before investing a ton of money into your bigger product.
This is called a “Smoke Test.” You can promote the product as if it’s already for sale to gauge feedback.
Then you can use early responses to find the best audience out there.
Step 3. Follow a proven formula for growth
I’m writing about Autopilot’s growth because their strategy is replicable.
Don’t get me wrong: Their story is amazing.
But they’re not necessarily special or different. You can do this, too.
For example, Autopilot credits their success to a proven growth formula.
They call it “The Acquire, Nurture,…
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