Did you choose the right growth model?

There's more than one...

It's all too easy to become entangled in the success stories of others, attempting to replicate their achievements by mimicking their methods.

I’m talking about copying and pasting another company’s growth strategy without fully comprehending the distinctions between various models and their respective advantages and drawbacks.

Growth models are not a one-size-fits-all.

It’s true. Most users want to experience your product’s value before speaking to a human.

Users trying to test out a product without needing to book a demo.

It can be quite frustrating when your homepage invites visitors to "Get started now," only for that call-to-action to lead them to a "Book a demo" page.

However, the answer is NOT simply to open up your product, adopt a freemium/trial model, and optimistically await the outcome.

Sounds obvious? It should be, but you’d be surprised how many teams expose their product without designing and building the right product model and user journeys necessary to allow new users to experience real value.

So what should you do?

Great question! Start with these 3 steps:

1. Get clear on your target audience and ICP.

   Do you know what your users really want?

   • Conduct thorough market research, create customer personas, and analyze customer feedback to identify common needs, desires, and pain points.

2. Understand the state of the market and where you fit in.

   Is your growth strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?

   • See Chapter 2 of “Product-Led Growth” for more (You can read it for free here https://productled.com/book)

   • Analyze competitor offerings, identify market trends, and assess your product's unique selling points to establish your competitive advantage and positioning.

3. Figure out how quickly you can provide value.

   How much time does your product need to demonstrate real value?

   • Identify your product’s user journey/s and take-note of how long a user needs to really benefit from your product’s core value.

Once you’ve done this, it will be a whole lot simpler to evaluate which growth model is the best fit for your product.

It’s super important to recognize that Freemium and Trial models represent distinct approaches and require a completely different infrastructure.

Here are some great resources to learn more about their differences and unique benefits:

• It’s all about trials by Elena Verna

• Freemium vs Free Trial by Openview

• Freemium or Free Trial by Jana Frejova

• Your Guide to Reverse Trials by Kyle Poyar

See you next week :)