Tell IH: Leads first. Customers second.
I posted last year the importance of building your email list.
Email is like the real estate of the Internet. You build your own little castle of tenants (email subscribers) and you're not as dependent as other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google which can change their algorithms and impact your growth.
I want to expand on that post and talk about leads in general and why I changed my focus from getting "customers" to getting "leads".
Here's a reality check:
Most customers won't purchase your product directly for three reasons:
#1 Your product does not offer value to them (we won't discuss that here)
#2 They don't see how your product offers value to them (so you need to educate them)
#3 They don't trust you (so you need to build trust)
The first step is to change your focus from "customers" to "leads".
Here's why:
- You have no commitment when you deal with leads. I mean, you'll be doing most of the stuff for free. So people can't ask too much from you anyway.
- It's easier and cheaper to start when you think about getting leads vs. getting customers. You can create content: A newsletter, running a niche Facebook group, writing a blog post, posting an article on Hacker News, or tweeting, instead of spending months to build a product that no one wants or trust.
- It gives you valuable info about what customers needs. You can then funnel that into your product building efforts and make something people want.
- It will make you an influencer in that niche if you keep educating customers. This creates your brand and creates defensibility over the long term.
- This educates customers about their problems (always think of problem first). In my emails I even go one step further: I talk about possible objections and answer them. I want to show them I care so much about their possible objections I am answering them before they come to me.
Here are some examples on how I practice the Leads first, Customers second mindset:
- In my email marketing I usually only send an offer after 3 or 4 emails. The first emails are educational and trust building emails.
- For my new product (my SaaS), I ran a Facebook group (Productized Startups) for free for one year. I just announced yesterday I was building a SaaS to help them.
I am not the only one doing it either, another example is Nathan Barry from ConvertKit who was a blogger before, built an authority and that's how we got his first customers for his SaaS.
🎁 Bonus -- Here's the copy of the email and our analytics after sending a newsletter: https://imgur.com/a/BDge8lL
Any other thoughts?
I don't agree with your terminology and IMHO think your title is misleading. I think I see where you are going, but I think we largely differ on the definition of the words.
I define "customers" as someone who has bought. Especially in SaaS you do want to focus on your customers more than your leads, as it all compounds and the game is about reducing churn. By all means every business should focus on their customers. That's how you keep them coming back (whether recurring or repeat) and or to spread word of mouth.
I define "leads" as people who are interested in your product. This is maybe what you are calling "getting customers".
Overall what I think you are saying don't focus on trying to get people to give you money but instead build an audience, a following, and authority on something. Which I can agree on. I think you can build authority on a topic you are deeply knowledgeable about, but that comes from being in the trenches and experiencing things first hand.
So I think I am in agreement with what you are saying, just not how you are saying it. Largely I believe more people are in agreement with how I defined those words, but who knows. My concern is that people will skim what you are saying and be misled.
Agreed, email lists are like real estate of the internet. You don't have to worry about organic traffic or panic about search algorithm changes, there will be always some traffic and sales from newsletter. What I learned lately is beside leads, building a brand is also very important for long-term gain. Which is already described by you (trust, consistency etc.). Thanks man for sharing your experience, keep us posted!
Thank you @vinrob for sharing the screenshots!
Well done to Many Pixels Team!
Just bookmarked this!!! Very good write up
Thanks my man!
Good job @Vinrob
Thanks!
I agree to a certain extent, although I would say that there is a point where businesses are only focused on nurturing through the funnel but not at all on cultivating relationships with current customers or improving/maintaining the quality of the product. This is obviously problematic and can backfire on a number of levels (I've seen it). So there's a delicate balance between focusing on nurturing new leads and keeping customers happy so that they can evangelize your product.
Thanks for sharing this.