Unstack Playbook
You've got a product and a few customers, but people keep asking you what your "go to market strategy is." But what does that mean exactly? Is it user acquisition? Brand? Pricing? The truth is, it's a lot of things all working together to help you maximize the commercial success of your business as you really start to grow.
We had a lot of questions, so we brought in an expert. This person has played the role of VP marketing at multiple startups from bootstrapped to series B and beyond. He broke it all down for unstack in a 40+ slide deck.
We paid for this so that hopefully you don't have to. Below we've published all of the slides plus our notes in the hopes that you can take a lot of this and apply it to your business to move quicker and be more effective.
Currently, we do very little marketing. Most of our traffic comes from referrals and SEO. We knew we needed a playbook that we could use to start growing the business more seriously.
Our goal was to map out a viable path to our first 500 paying customers. That was really the only goal. We said "give us a playbook to get to a million in annual recurring revenue"
What is Unstack?
What problem does Unstack solve?
Who is it for?
Who should use it?
How do we do it?
How does Unstack solve the problem for the people who should use it?
It is important to start testing paid strategies, but unpaid tactics like content marketing, SEO, and partner marketing are more likely to drive results over time in a crowded marketing place.
Like many, it's not simply linear.
However, this maps out how we will usually find a user and drive them through to a conversion (upgrade).
Unstack needs to continually push versions of the core message in front of the target audience of SaaS marketers at small-medium sized businesses to get new users and systematically see what works.
That requires a mix of channels, messages, and offers that are aligned with their designated landing pages.
Just like messages, different offers should be tested to see which drive the most interest and conversion:
Amplifying Unstack content by putting money behind it will help bring visitors who didn’t convert back into the fold and introduce new prospects to the “why” of choosing Unstack.
Creating and distributing great, relevant content on a regular basis is the key to growing qualified, unpaid traffic to the Unstack website.
What is the role of content?
Written, video, and audio content is designed to insert Unstack into existing SaaS marketing conversations, raise awareness among SaaS marketers and attract new visitors to the website. By speaking directly to the issues facing the core target market you’ll build credibility that gets you in the consideration set for site migrations and new sites.
How is it distributed?
Content without distribution will get very little return on your effort. Every piece you create needs to be promoted via email, social media, in discussion groups, and in some cases the in-app experience. A blueprint for promotion should be created for each content type.
Building an email list and (to a lesser extent) organic social audience is the key to staying top of mind for a considered purchase like Unstack.
To that end, you should make sure there is a way to join the email list in the footer with a clear value prop. In addition, exit intent pop ups for non-users should be used to capture more people before they disappear.
Emails should be sent weekly at a consistent time and be branded as from Unstack (e.g., Grant from Unstack), featuring existing content and related high value features.
In addition to content created by the Unstack team, traffic and list growth can be improved exponentially by engaging partners and customers.
Expert roundups, co-branded webinars, and case studies are all great ways to build a strong relationship with those people who already love Unstack, generate more content, and reach a wider community of people.
In exchange for being featured and tagged, most partners and customers will agree to share the content they are featured in, amplifying it for free. As long as the ask is minimal, most SaaS marketers and agencies will be willing to participate.
It is important to create a consistent communications cadence to start building an audience and driving engagement, even if engagement doesn’t happen right away.
In addition to creating a steady flow of content and demand capture, every month should have a nexus like a high value piece of content or significant feature release (or re-release).
These should:
Every marketing event should leverage numerous assets across channels.
Video: Each marketing event should have a teaser video for content or explainer video for a feature release that talks about why it’s important and how to use it. Videos should be on youtube, on the blog, and promoted on social media
Every marketing event should be in heavy rotation for the entire month leveraging numerous assets across channels.
To improve website conversion, it is important to make sure that the Unstack homepage shows off the power of what can be created and speaks directly to the pain points of SaaS marketers. In addition, creating a secondary CTA can help engage people who are not yet ready to start building a website.
For example:
Appcues recommendations:
Education is a make piece of the marketing flow, so throughout this email funnel, you'll see more-and-more product education and proof of the product being a good fit.
Human-centric sales should play three roles for Unstack. 1) Reactively answering high value questions. 2) Proactively reaching out to high potential businesses. 3) Encouraging highly engaged free users to upgrade.
Recommendations:
Growing Unstack means putting a foundational, automated marketing program in place and creating momentum around monthly “moments.”
To be successful, Unstack’s tactics and messaging must focus on the core target audience of SaaS marketers at small and medium sized businesses.
Changing platforms is a significant undertaking, making Unstack is a considered purchase. That means nurture programs and consistent content is needed to stay top of mind over time.
Because Unstack is in a crowded space, organic and partner centric activities may be a more viable path forward - supported by paid content amplification and demand capture.