Startup growth advisor, angel investor, and growth marketing leader Susan Su joined Fuel’s own Jamie Viggiano for Friday’s third installment of our dedicated webinar series on navigating the COVID-19 crisis. This may very well be our most tactical conversation yet, with insights on how to prioritize retention, build community, edge out the incumbent competition, and take advantage of the unprecedented paid landscape now available.
For brands capable of shifting their idea of “growth marketing” from just paid acquisition to “performance brand” there are huge opportunities to be had during this strange new time. Whether you’re lucky enough to have a budget to burn now or are in the throes of considering a pivot, be sure to watch this talk all the way through before you make your next moves.
You can listen to the full webinar below:
Here are the key takeaways:
#1 Optimize your efforts for the right type of retention.
Many brands have gotten into the habit of defaulting to top-of-funnel growth as their number one priority. It’s always been the case that you should have reliably strong retention before prioritizing acquisition, but retention is now more important than ever. Going forward, brands that understand the importance of retention will have an extra edge as spending slows across so many categories. But all types of retention are not the same:
Dollar retention - someone spending more money with your business (think repeat-use products or services like grocery items or dog walkers). Your tool for this type of retention is pricing, so you should be thinking about ways to adjust pricing to keep users spending (such as offering payment plans or discounts).
Product retention - someone may or may not be spending more money, but they still interact with your product (think longer-term or recurring purchases like subscription software). The key here is keeping your customers, even if they can’t pay right now - thinking about offering downgrades to keep them in the habit of using your product until they’re able to pay again might be your smart play if your customers are tightening their belts right now.
Brand retention - someone may not be spending money or interacting with your product any longer, but they still love your brand (think one-time big purchases like a wedding dress or baby stroller). The value of these loyal users is lifetime WOM, and there’s a lot you can do around storytelling to keep your brand on the minds of this community.
#2 Do what legacy incumbents can’t do right now.
This crisis has led to a big dip in paid spend - anecdotally, we’re seeing decreases of 30-50% across the board. At the same time, we’re seeing a dramatic increase in inventory as screen time is through the roof. That means paid just got a whole lot cheaper. But these big, scary numbers about lower spending aren’t evenly distributed - legacy incumbents are the ones taking the big hits. This presents opportunities for smaller brands to take advantage of bargain prices to raise their profiles and make some headway against incumbents in the space. Those big brand budgets were inflating the ecosystem for everyone, and now they’re gone. Now’s the time to look at your own category, locate the legacy brands, and use your agility to take their customers.
#3 Capture the contact if you can’t get the conversion.
Don’t despair if you can’t capture a conversion right now, as long as you can capture a contact. Think of being on a paid channel as being on rented turf. Your job is to do two things at the same time. First, get some customers while you’re on their turf. Second, get as many people from that rented turf over to owned channels as quickly as you can. If you have extra budget, now’s a great time to really rev up your lead generation engine. Building a big, fresh list of people who are interested in your brand will give you an advantage when people are ready to spend again.
#4 Prioritize building a community.
A dollar today is better than the promise of two tomorrow. But if that dollar’s not coming because people aren’t spending right now, then using this time to develop a community is a brand’s best move. Why? Because a unique confluence of factors has arrived: screen time is through the roof, a higher depth of engagement exists, and captive audiences are actively seeking connection. Finding ways to bring people together to make even minor meaningful connections - remote experiences, virtual life events, textual or visual content that’s relevant to their current situations - will pay dividends down the line.
#5 Test, test, test.
If you don’t have the budget to really ramp spend on paid channels, this might be the right time for you to de-risk some of your brand efforts with concept testing. You’ve likely already experimented with using Facebook and Instagram for A/B message testing - concept testing works much the same way. With so many changes to consumer behaviors and needs taking place, it’s a good time to pressure test some of your brand assumptions. Try out experiments with questions that dig into key concepts like “Does a time saving positioning make more sense than an increased productivity positioning?”
#6 Look for opportunities in unexpected places.
With everyone stuck at home, the out-of-home marketing space is sure to take some hits. This means the millions of surfaces across the U.S. - billboards, bus ads, airport posters, taxi tops - will likely be ready to offer deals soon. OOH advertising is a very fragmented, analog industry, so if you’re hoping to take advantage, consider using an aggregate service like LA-based Ad Quick. They make it easy to be selective about your targeting and help you find opportunity gaps. In the meantime, with so many people stuck at home there’s renewed opportunity to be found in direct mail.
#7 Familiarize yourself with the pivot pyramid.
Pivot. It’s a word getting thrown around a lot these days, and you may have uttered it a time or two yourself. Many early stage startups find themselves in the strange position of having just achieved product/market fit, only to find the market has shifted suddenly beneath their feet. Does this mean you must go back to the drawing board? Maybe. But before doing a pivot make sure that it’s going to be beneficial for your business long term, and make sure you understand that there are multiple methods of pivoting. Think of this like a pyramid, with CUSTOMERS holding that foundational space at the bottom. Pivoting to a new customer segment is the most difficult move to make. The next tiers are occupied by PROBLEM, SOLUTION, TECH, and then GROWTH at the very top. Your growth strategy is the easiest thing to pivot, because you don’t have to change everything below it. Changing your tech or product means you’ll have to take another look at your growth strategy, but you’re still working on the same solution to the same problem for the same customers, so can keep most other elements of your brand in place. Start your pivot considerations at the top of the pyramid before working your way down.
#8 Embrace a harvest season mentality.
There’s no doubt that this pandemic and the developing economic realities have caused blows to certain industries. If your company happens to be countercyclical during this time, it’s your season to shine. Put all hands on deck now, you can rest later. This is the ideal time for you to buy up paid opportunities, focus on conversions now and build a huge pipeline of leads/ customers for the future. Think about this as harvest season - a short, energetic period of hustle that sets you up for the next year.