Vanity vs Actionable metrics: Data Led Program Episode 1
- 1. SaaS Actionable Metrics Tracking The SaaS Metrics That Matter Most Define your product’s actionable metrics and align your team to grow smarter & faster.
- 2. Who’s this for? Product Led Growth SaaS Businesses. Identify what metrics matter and the biggest growth opportunity in your data. Owners, Managers, Leadership Teams Establish clear goals and get your team on the same page. Team members Know the growth goal for your role. Take this to your boss and say enough is enough, let’s do something about this.
- 3. Summary 1. What are Vanity Metrics? 2. What are Actionable Metrics? 3. Define Your Product’s Actionable Metrics 4. Align Your Team Around These Metrics 5. Track Your Progress 6. Identify Opportunities
- 4. Metrics Executive Dashboards: Current Status of the business and trend Customer Journey Dashboards: Find opportunities in improving the current focus in the customer journey
- 5. Vanity Metrics Defined 1. A metric that makes you feel good without telling you anything about your current focus in the business. 2. One businesses vanity metric can be another businesses actionable metric. 3. An actionable metric at one moment may be a vanity metric at another based on your stage & focus. 4. Vanity metrics: good for feeling awesome, bad for action.’ -Tim Ferris
- 6. How do you recognize a vanity metric? 1. Is it always going up? I.e. cumulative page views, revenue to date, Email subscribers 2. Is anyone responsible for the result? Metrics are not being used by someone who complete their goals 3. Provides an incomplete picture Email open rates 4. Has the Focus of your business changed? I.e. moving from acquisition to onboarding focus based on your current needs.
- 7. ー Acquisition - How do users find you? ー Activation - Do users get first value? ー Revenue - How do you make money? ー Retention- Do users come back? ー Referral - Do users tell others? The most important actions that your users take that lead them to have success with your product based on their point in the customer journey Actionable Metrics?
- 8. How do you recognize an actionable metric? 1. Is it a ratio or percentage? I.e. trial user conversion rate, email click-through rate 2. Would a change in the metric be a result of your work or initiatives? I.e. Customer success manager responsible for onboarded accounts 3. Can it be misinterpreted? First week retention 4. Is this in line with your current business focus Later stage startup looking at 6-month retention
- 9. Define actionable metrics Primary Metrics The most important metrics for the stage. Secondary Metrics What are the additional metrics that assist in the conversion of the primary metrics? Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral Primary Metric Secondary Metrics Primary Metric Secondary Metrics Primary Metric Secondary Metrics Primary Metric Secondary Metrics Primary Metric Secondary Metrics Note: Primary vs Secondary terms refer to importance not timing. Secondary metrics may come first in the customer journey.
- 10. Initial Concept Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR! Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR! by Dave McClure Expanded on by ● Trevor Hatfield (inturact.com) ● Claudiu Murariu (innertrends.com)
- 11. Example: Hotjar We will use Hotjar heatmaps as a simple example to help explain Actionable Metrics Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral
- 12. Acquisition (Attract & Convert) Primary Metric What is your customer acquisition strategy? Secondary Metrics What are the actions that lead up to getting the prospects to convert? ● Free Trial ● Visits ● Sign Up Intent ○ Visits to Pricing Page ○ Started Registration ● Download Resource ● Subscribe to Blog The first step where visitors find you online and initiate sign up to begin exploring your solution.
- 13. Activation (Onboard) Primary Metric What is the promise of your product? Secondary Metrics What are the steps a user needs to take to get to experience the promise of your product? ● Create Heatmap ● Create Account ● Install Embed Code ● Test Embed Code is Installed ● Preview Heatmap They signed up. Get them to experience value for the first time.
- 14. Revenue (Upgrade & Expand) Primary Metric How will you make money from new users? Secondary Metrics How will you make more money from existing customers? ● Initial Purchase ● Upgrade Tier ○ Personal = Basic to Plus ○ Business = Increase pageviews per day ○ Agency = Add Client Users subscribe to your tool and become customers. The more they use it the more they should be willing to pay for additional features.
- 15. Retention (Engage) Primary Metric What are the main reasons your customers are using your product? Secondary Metrics What are the actions that help people achieve their reasons? ● Analyze Heatmaps ● View Click Heatmap ● View Scroll Heatmap ● Add Note to Headmap ● Download & Share Heatmap Users are coming back to your product and looking to see increased value and engage with the product more.
- 16. Referral (Invite) Primary Metric How can a user generate a new seat in your product? Secondary Metrics What are the actions they need to take to get more people to use your product? ● New Referral (Invitation Accepted) ● New Referral Invitation Sent ● Add New Team Member Users are loving your product and start sharing it with their network of friends, colleagues and co-workers.
- 17. 10 questions to define your metrics: Acquisition: What is your customer acquisition strategy? ○ What are the actions that lead up to getting the prospects to convert? Activation: What is the promise of your product? ○ What are the steps a user needs to take to get to experience the promise of your product? Revenue: How will you make money from your new users? ○ How will you make more money from existing customers? Retention: What are the main reasons your customers are using your product? ○ What are the actions that help people achieve their reasons? Referral: How can a user generate a new seat in your product? ○ What are the actions they need to take to get more people to use your product?
- 18. So, how does this come together? Ongoing Efforts
- 19. Align Your Team Around the Metrics ● Which team is responsible for growing them? ● What person on the team is responsible for addressing any challenges? ● Where will the metrics be tracked? ● What are the strategies to grow them? ● What tools are needed to execute the strategies?
- 20. Is Your Team Aligned? A report by Forrester Research supports this by concluding that businesses with proper alignment see a 32% increase in revenue growth, while organizations with less alignment actually see a 7% decrease. Only 8% of companies say their marketing and sales teams are aligned, according to Forrester Research.
- 21. Which teams are responsible for growing them? Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral Marketing Sales Customer Success Sales Marketing Product Sales Customer Success Product Marketing Customer Success Product Marketing Marketing Customer Success Product
- 22. Who on the team owns the metric? Stage Metric Person Responsible Acquisition Free Trial Michael Jordan Activation Create First Heatmap Larry Bird Revenue Initial Purchase Allen Iverson Retention 2nd Heatmap Created Manute Bol Referral New Referral Magic Johnson
- 23. Where will the metrics be tracked? Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral Own DB Google Analytics HubSpot MailChimp Own DB InnerTrends Mixpanel Fullstory Own DB InnerTrends Stripe Own DB InnerTrends Mixpanel Own DB Ambassador InnerTrends Mixpanel
- 24. What are the strategies to grow them? Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral Inbound Marketing Paid Advertising Cold Outreach Account-Based Marketing SEO Growth Hacking Social Media Partner Program Walkthroughs Checklists In-App Messages Triggered Emails Drip Sequences User Engagement Tracking Product Updates Pricing Strategies Free Trials Demos Sales Enablement Content Phone Calls How To Resources Webinars In-App Messaging Feature Additions Retention Emails Engagement Tracking Training Courses Customer Surveys Product Updates Affiliate Program Referral Program Product Invite Features
- 25. What tools are needed to execute the strategies? Acquisition Activation Revenue Retention Referral
- 26. Track Your Progress Setup tracking to help monitor the metrics and hold your team accountable for their growth.
- 27. Create a Company Scorecard Metric Person Responsible Goal Goal Direction 11/1/20 - 11/7/20 Free Trial Michael Jordan 250 >= 300 Create First Heatmap Larry Bird 200 >= 150 Initial Purchase Allen Iverson 100 >= 97 2nd Heatmap Created Manute Bol 75 >= 80 New Referral Magic Johnson 50 >= 52 Used by the leadership team to track the primary metrics and see a bird’s eye view of company growth and where the biggest areas of focus need to be.
- 28. Create Team Scorecards Metric Person Responsible Goal Goal Direction 11/1/19 - 11/7/19 Created Account Larry Bird 250 >= 300 Install Embed Larry Bird 200 >= 150 Test Embed Code is Installed Allen Iverson 150 >= 97 Create Heatmap Larry Bird 100 >= 105 Preview Heatmap Allen Iverson 50 >= 48 Product Marketing Weekly Team Meeting Allows teams to get more granular and address both the primary metrics, secondary metrics.
- 29. Identify Opportunities Ask the right questions to identify the opportunities in improving your actionable metrics.
- 30. Get a Head Start Step 2: http://bit.ly/pls-actionable-metrics Step 1: https://www.innertrends.com/customer-journey-metrics
- 31. Find your biggest growth opportunities with Market 8 and InnerTrends Book your free 2 hour workshop with the SaaS Growth Experts: Diagnose your bottlenecks & hit your growth goals! In our session we’ll dive into: ● Your product, how it works, and how it makes your users successful ● Which metrics you’re tracking, how you’re currently tracking them and what you should be tracking ● Defining your product’s actionable metrics ● Aligning your entire team around the metrics that matter, and assigning responsibilities ● Dive into your funnel, and diagnose your biggest growth problem You’ll walk away with a step-by-step action plan you can implement straight away. Apply here
- 32. Claudiu Murariu CEO & Co-founder Email: claudiu@innertrends.com Schedule a time to speak Connect with me on LinkedIn www.innertrends.com Joseph Karim Head of Growth Consulting Email: joseph@market8.net Schedule a time to speak Connect with me on LinkedIn www.market8.net We look forward to partnering up and growing your SaaS with you! Ready to kick SaaS? - Let’s talk! Trevor Hatfield General Partner Email: trevor@inturact.capital Connect with me on LinkedIn www.inturact.capital