Ed Fry's presentation from INBOUND 2018 on Inbound Growth for Scale-Ups.

1. Inbound Growth
for SaaS Scale-Ups
Ed Fry @edfryed
#INBOUND18

2. Why inbound gets really hard for SaaS.

3. Why inbound gets really hard for SaaS.
CAC
$ in
1st
period

4. Why inbound gets really hard for SaaS.
CAC
$ in
1st
period
Series A
Series BSeries A
$ Series B $

5. Why inbound gets really hard for SaaS.
CAC
$ in
1st
period
Series A
Series BSeries A
$ Series B $

6. Inbound Growth
for crazy expectations
Ed Fry @edfryed
#INBOUND18

7. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data

8. We share what we see on the Hull blog

9. We share what we see on the Hull blog

10. We share what we see on the Hull blog

11. We share what we see on the Hull blog

12. TEAM TEAM TEAM
Tool Tool
Teams own tools. Tools own data.
Tool Tool Tool Tool

13. TEAM TEAM TEAM
Tool
Data
Tool
Data
Tool
Data
Tool
Data
Tool
Data
Tool
Data
Teams own tools. Tools own data.

14. Teams own tools. Tools own data.
TEAM TEAM TEAM
Tool Tool Tool Tool Tool Tool
Integrated Customer Data

15. ACCESS

16. ACCESS
MODEL

17. ACCESS
MODEL
GOALS

18. ACCESS
MODEL
GOALS
PROCESS

20. Unifying our member data (Access)
Profiles Usage Email Web sessions

21. Growth model at inbound.org
Article
Weekly
Contributors
Weekly Active
Users
Discussion
0.7x
2.7x
4x

22. Our models gave us three
hypotheses for growth #focus
Discussions > Articles
Existing contributors > New contributors
↑ Contributors = ↑ WAU

23. Assigning goals behind the North Star
Weekly
Contributors
Weekly Active
Users
Weekly
Discussions
North star metric ★
1500 goal (community team)
↑ Q&A
Reactivate contributors

24. Report target vs. actual
performance over time

25. Q&A Process: Find good questions without answers

26. Create a segment of ideal contributors
>500 members by skills, timezone, recent activity etc.

27. Send an email inviting contributions
Plain text, gmail-style with a simple text link CTA

28. Promote the activated threads
Active threads pull in even more readers & contributors

29. inbound.org faileBut inbound.org failed...

35. REPEATED
EFFORT
GROWTHDATA + ?=

36. RULES GROWTHDATA

37. ACCESS
MODEL
GOALS
PROCESS
RULES

38. Pricing

39. Sales
compensation

40. Experiment data

41. Principles of Rules-Based Growth

42. Principles of Rules-Based Growth
Objective

43. Principles of Rules-Based Growth
Objective Codified

44. Principles of Rules-Based Growth
Objective Codified Independent

45. Principles of Rules-Based Growth
Rules
Process
Product

46. Effort
Value
created
this
quarter
What should your
growth team work on?

47. Effort
Value
created
this
quarter
Flywheels
What should your
growth team work on?

48. Effort
Value
created
this
quarter
FlywheelsHacks
What should your
growth team work on?

49. Effort
Value
created
this
quarter
FlywheelsHacks
Rules

50. Content Rules
(Reverse-engineering booking.com)

52. Scaling “decent” content

53. User reviewsHotel features
Location
Searcher context
“solo travellers”
“We speak your language!”
Proximity
Scaling “decent” content

54. Rules-based landing pages
with design, dev & content modelling
RULES GROWTHDATA

55. Design = Rules.

56. Design = Rules.

57. Development = Rules.

58. Development = Rules.

59. Content Modelling = Rules.

60. Content modelling for a blog
Title Title Title
Body Body Body
Author Author Author
Title
Body
Author

61. Content modelling for a landing page
Title A Title B Title C
CTA
CTA
CTA
Title D
CTA
Video Feature B Video Feature D
Feature A Quotes A VideoFeature C
Quotes A Quotes B Quotes B
Alt. CTA

62. Content modelling in production
1
2
3
4

63. 3minutes per
landing page

64. Rules-based landing pages
with design, dev & content modelling
RULES GROWTHDATA

65. Rules-based landing pages
with design, dev & content modelling
Copy &
images
Production
& staging
website

66. Rules-based landing pages
with design, dev & content modelling
Copy &
images
Production
& staging
website

67. Customer Data Rules
(More reverse-engineering booking.com)

68. Content recommendation

71. Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
RULES GROWTHDATA

72. Segments Demo requested
TRUE
QUALIFIED LEAD

73. Country
United States
Demo requested
TRUE
QUALIFIED LEAD
Segments

74. Users invited
> 3 times
Country
United States
Demo requested
TRUE
QUALIFIED LEAD
Segments

75. Users invited
> 3 times
Country
United States
Demo requested
TRUE
QUALIFIED LEAD
Customer “fit”
VERY GOOD
Segments

76. Combine different types
& sources of data to
build segments

77. Hi {firstname},
I saw you just
requested a demo of
Hull.
I’d love to show you
the platform if you
can pick a time on my
calendar here.
Demo Requested
TRUETemplates

78. Hi {firstname},
I saw you just
requested a demo of
Hull.
I’d love to share how
Hull works for {role}
if you can pick a
time on my calendar
here.
Job Role
Marketing
Demo Requested
TRUETemplates

79. Hi {firstname},
I saw you’re looking
for a demo & pricing
of the Hull platform.
I’d love to share how
Hull works for {role}
if you can pick a
time on my calendar
here.
Viewed /pricing
> 3 times
Job Role
Marketing
Demo Requested
TRUETemplates

80. Hi {firstname},
I’m here to answer
your questions & help
evaluate Hull for
your {role} team.
If you have questions
or would like to see
a demo, pick a time
on my calendar here.
Viewed /pricing
> 3 times
Job Role
Marketing
Demo Requested
TRUE
DISC Profile
C (analytical)
Templates

81. We love liquid templating.
Hi {% if user.first_name != blank %}
{{ user.first_name | capitalize }}
{% else %}
there
{% endif %},
{% if user.clearbit_job_role == “marketing”
AND user.crystal_disc_scores contains “D” AND
user.madkudu_customer_fit_segment contains
“high” %}Stop sending generic, send-to-all
spam emails
{% else %}

83. #demo_requests
Hana Abaza
Head of Marketing
Toronto
Fit: Very Good
Signals: Data Warehouse, Salesforce, $SHOP
Matching tech: 8
Blog Reader for 2 months
Interested in data warehousing
Viewed pricing 3 times this week
1
Tech stack
Website
Scoring
Internal
templates

84. Workflows

85. Control the complexity in your workflows
New user?
END
Profile
complete?
Drip BDrip A
New user?
Profile complete?

86. New user?
END
Profile
complete?
Connected
Twitter?
Connected
Twitter?
New user?
Profile complete?
Drip A Drip B Drip C Drip D
Connected Twitter?
Control the complexity in your workflows

87. New user?
Profile complete?
Twitter connected?
Location added?
Location inferred?
Gender?
Interests added?
Skills
Has a blog?
Job seeker?
Job searched?
Job applied?
Article submitted?
Commented?
Bio completed?
Has any badges?
HubSpot connected?
Recently active?
Opens email?
Follows @Inboundorg
Power user?
Upvoted?
Subscribed daily?
Subscribed weekly?
Control the complexity in your workflows

88. New user?
Profile complete?
Twitter connected?
Location added?
Location inferred?
Gender?
Interests added?
Skills
Has a blog?
Job seeker?
Job searched?
Job applied?
Article submitted?
Commented?
Bio completed?
Has any badges?
HubSpot connected?
Recently active?
Opens email?
Follows @Inboundorg
Power user?
Upvoted?
Subscribed daily?
Subscribed weekly?
Epic failKeep it simple, stooopid
Control the complexity in your workflows

89. https://prezi.com/p/rakvqjfhetij/customer-life-cycle/

91. COMPLEX
SEGMENTS
COMPLEX
TEMPLATES
SIMPLE
WORKFLOWS
Control your complexity

92. Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
RULES GROWTHDATA

93. Accounts
Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
Enrich
Notifications
Product

94. Accounts
Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
Enrich
Notifications
EmailProduct

95. Email
Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
Compute Enrich Predict
NotificationsAccounts
Product

96. Email
Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
Compute Enrich Predict
Notifications
Chat
Ads
Accounts
Product

97. Email
Accounts
Product
Rules-based sales automation
with segments, templates & workflows
Compute Enrich Predict
Notifications
Chat
AdsPayments
Intent

98. Accounts
Product
Account-based content marketing
with content & customer data rules
Compute Enrich Predict
Notifications
Payments
Intent
Web
CMS
Landing pages

100. Don’t think about “what tools?”
Think about “what rules?”

101. 10x
more data
engineers
since 2015

102. What should your
growth team work on?

103. ACCESS
MODEL
GOALS
PROCESS
RULESWhat should your
growth team work on?
#metaRules

104. Study rules-based growth in “Spotted”.

105. Go explore! Here’s a non-exhaustive list of
Rules to grow from startup to
scaleup
Segments
Templates
Workflows
Prospecting
Lead qualification
Content creation rules
Translation
Pricing
Sales compensation
Experiment data
Design style guides
Website build rules
SEO rules
Content models

106. Data-Driven Growth: In summary
➔ Access → Models → Goals → Process → Rules
➔ Rules are objective, codified & independent
➔ Think pricing, sales compensation & experiment data
➔ Growth teams work on rules (vs. flywheels & hacks)
➔ Content rules like landing pages
◆ Design
◆ Development
◆ Content modelling
➔ Customer data rules like sales automation
◆ Segments (complex)
◆ Templates (complex)
◆ Workflows (simple)
➔ Checkout “Spotted” for rules-based growth ideas

107. Slides & resources at:
hull.io/get/inbound18
ed@hull.io @edfryed
#INBOUND18