My Essential Guide to Hack 0 to 1 Growth
I helped scale two biz from 0 to 1 in a capital-efficient way.
↳ Inclusive of 1 biz from $0 to $10Mn ARR.
And I had my fair share of learnings.
All this while getting my hands dirty.
I have noted key learnings in 1 guide.
1. Don't go after all channels for growth.
▪ Prioritize 2-3 channels. 80-20 Rule!
2. Accept Product-Market Fit(PMF) quantitatively.
▪ 50-50-50 in NPS, Referrals & Renewal
▪ At a decent monthly scale.(1cr rev.+ or 1K users)
3. Accelerate scale post-hitting PMF.
4. Focus on Referrals from Day 0.
▪ Performance is still an oxygen mask.
▪ It only moves you from Point A to Point B. After Point B, performance ROI won't make sense.
▪ Hence, referral/wom can only survive you post Point B.
▪ Actionable: 10x User Experience.
5. It's foolish to spend money on brand ads & not SEO.
▪ Push Branding: Spends on Brand Ads.
▪ Pull Branding: SEO.
6. But SEO is NOT Free!
▪ It takes consistent time & energy daily for a decent time.
▪ And that comes at a cost.
▪ Have I said anything about backlinks?
7. It's okay for SEO to be not an acquisition channel but an excellent brand discoverability channel.
8. SEO: You can speed up the SEO output just by speeding up the SEO input, and that’s writing shit loads of "quality" content. - Ex: Just publish more content,
- And that itself can become a moat against your competitor.
9. Know every pulse of your TG.
▪ Pain Paints with the category?
▪ Pain points with other solutions they have tried?
▪ It helps to build great ads.
10. To understand the pulse of the TG
▪ Don't just do survey calls. Do Sale Calls.
11. Before you think about how to get traffic,
▪ consider how you will convert them.
12. Don’t just blindly copy your competitor
▪ Even they don't know or still figuring out.
▪ "You are less likely to die from murder than suicide."
13. Core growth channels.
Rarely you will find a magical channel sitting outside this:
Paid
- Pull: Search
- Meta (FB/IG)
- YT
- Affiliates & Partnerships (piggyback)
Organic
- Pull: SEO
- Social Platforms
- Referrals (wom + nudged)
14. Primary mediums to convert traffic: Lead Gen, Direct Convert, and Freemium.
a. High Ticket Size > Opt for Lead Gen.
b. Low Ticket Size & Easy to Understand Product> Direct convert (ex: DTC).
15. Don't wait too long to scale via paid.
16. Prioritise pull channels like Search ads over Meta/YT
17. If Unit economics metrics don't make sense in Search ads?
▪ First fix & build business for search ads
▪ Before jumping to other channels.
18. Find Channel <> CTA fit.
▪ One CTA doesn't fit for all channels.
▪ Ex: FB: paid lead gen works vs YT: Free lead gen.
▪ Ex: Blogs - Free diet plan vs Paid - Book free consult.
▪ Experiment to understand your version.
19. Meta Ads: You have 4 core levers to make meta your best CAC channel.
Just focus on these 4, and you are home.
I call it the CLAP framework.
All have equal weightage in terms of importance.
1. Creative
2. Landing page
3. Audience
4. Pixel
20. Meta ads: Don't go for too broad an audience initially.
▪ Narrow but broad enough to match your TG's
▪ Once pixel learning strengthens, go broad.
21. Meta ads: Don't wait too long to run lookalikes.
▪ If you have above 1K+ data > run LAs.
▪ Ensure lookalikes & remarketing is running.
22. Search Ads: Focus on improving your Ad Rank
▪ Check IS % lost due to Ad Rank
▪ How to improve> that's point 19.
23. Search Ads: Quality Score is your Dharma!
▪ Check what % of spends on Kws with QS< 7
▪ That's open opportunity in front of you. Fix it.
24. Levers to Optimize for Tofu & Bofu in Lead Gen Campaigns
Tofu
You want to do “Free Lead Gen”.
Ex: Book a Free ClassOr You want to do “Paid Lead Gen”.
Ex: Book Free Trial @Rs 99.
Bofu: There are 2 angles in it
Trial(x days) or Demo (1 time)
You can do demos/explain the product in 2 fashions further
Sales: Convert in 1:1 or
Webinar: 1: Many fashion.
Example of possible combinations
Paid + 1:many + Demo
Attend webinar at Rs 99.
Free + 1:1 + Trial
Book a Free Class
Free + 1:Many + Demo
Attend Free webinar
Mistake we do: We copy the flow of your competitor. And stick with it for life!
25. Social Media: Don’t put content on your organic social media channels for the sake of it. If you are putting out content, this channel should own core growth metrics.
26. Social Media: Don’t let the team get away by saying I am building the brand on social media. It’s a long-term game. This is all BS! Own Metrics, that's point 26
27. Social Media: Since it’s a content play, No. 1 metric to own is Virality i.e. % shares.
28. Steal with pride
If anything you see is worth a try, irrespective any other team or any competitor is doing it, go for it. Don’t shy!
29. Be Paranoid.
▪ Prepare for what worse can happen.
▪ Growth plan should reflect it.
▪ In pursuit, it's okay to be stressed & anxious.
▪ Nothing great comes if all goes well.
30. Don't ask for Permission.
▪ Ask for forgiveness.
▪ Don't wait for approvals & validation.
▪ Go ahead if you think it's the right thing to do.