Jun 6, 2019
Imagine a 12-year-old high-schooler who just came to the US, all
the way from Pakistan.
He barely speaks English and spends most of his time in the
library. Basically, he’s a total geek… all he wants to do is play
computer games, but the library computers have their proxies
blocked (because school’s not meant to be fun!).
So what does he do? He creates his own proxy…obviously!
… no wonder he went on to become such a successful entrepreneur, who, might I add
has over 2.5 mil YouTube subscribers.
Such problem-solving skills are priceless for entrepreneurs. Most
of our job boils down to finding solutions and bypassing
obstacles.
In this episode of Escape
Velocity, watch this now grown “high school nerd”, Syed
Balkhi CEO of WPBeginner / OptinMonster (and 2 dozen other
companies) dive all the way down to the technical details of
black-hat SEO, YouTube domination, and the rise of the WordPress
giant.
It’s rare to hear someone go beyond just scratching the surface
with interesting ideas. But Syed drills all the way to the bottom
and gives VERY PRACTICAL tips that you can use to grow your SaaS business.
And in case you’re wondering, it all started with cricket…
It’s hard to list all the gems I got from this conversation, but
here are some of the key topics:
1. The role of a mentor
2. Why SaaS is like real estate
3. How to evaluate business opportunities (make sure they NEED it,
not just want it!)
4. Getting them to subscribe (retrain the consumer)
5. It’s all about customer mentality
6. Staying competitive with your SaaS product
7. What is the SaaS niche with a big void? (You’ll be
surprised)
While the practical juice in this conversation is spilling all over
our 30+ minute conversation, it’s the insight about staying
competitive that can give vitamins for your SaaS business right
away.
Around minute 22 is where Syed unwraps it all in a 2-pointer
response…
1. Customer-driven surveys- Everyone does
surveys for their SaaS. But the key is to use them to really talk
and understand your customers. One way to do this is through
conditional surveys.
If you bombard users with automated questions, you are not going to
understand why they responded with a 3 and not an 8 to your
previous question. So make sure you personalize the follow-up
questions based on what they initially respond.
2. In-product marketing- Your product probably has
some premium features which are not available for the lower-tier
customers. Instead of hiding these features, make sure you add a
link, a preview, or a video…You need to explain to your users the
value they could get by upgrading their tier. A simple strategy
that can easily increase your existing clients’ revenue.
It all boils down to the attention to detail.
Be sure to catch the full
episode here and drop me a comment with any questions
you have about maintaining your product competitiveness.
--
Dan Martell has advised more startups
than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you
how to scale. He previously created, raised venture
funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and
Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets
that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell