Clear and useful product instructions are critical in product led growth framework. Product-led growth (PLG) is a SaaS product sales methodology many companies are trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace. It’s a valid way to get your SaaS product into the hands of customers. You can let them see the value with little initial monetary investment.
Product-led companies flip the traditional sales model on its head. Instead of helping buyers go through a long, drawn-out sales cycle, they give the buyer the “keys” to their product. The company, in turn, focuses on helping the buyer improve their life. Upgrading to a paid plan becomes a no-brainer. Your sales cycles get shorter.
Bush, Wes. Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself (Product-Led Growth Series Book 1) (p. 3). Product-Led Institute. Kindle Edition.
Using a product led growth framework is a great model for getting potential customers to download your product. Getting these customers to convert to paying for the product is another issue entirely. To do that, you have to show the customers the fantastic things they can do to solve their problems with your product if only they pay.
And how can you show customers that value to convert them to pay? Many companies choose to reach out and talk to every customer, even in PLG. This isn’t the best strategy because it doesn’t scale well. That’s a lot of staff and a lot of time spent on free customers who may never convert to paying customers. And who has time in their day for sales phone calls?
The best product led growth examples have a robust content ecosystem of post sales content.
Onboarding instructions
User instructions are focal to the success of PLG strategies. User instructions serve as a primary tool for supporting user experience, driving adoption, and fueling product growth. In product led growth, the product itself is the primary driver of acquisition, retention, and expansion. The content ecosystem of effective user instructions plays a pivotal role in maximizing the value users derive from the product. It’s literally how they learn to use your product.
User instructions are the customer experience that makes the product easy to use. This positive user experience creates satisfaction and loyalty, leading to increased retention and advocacy, key drivers of organic growth.
Knowledge base articles, in-app instructions, or user guides provide instructions for using the product efficiently and effectively. Customers can solve the problems they downloaded the product for. Clear and useable onboarding instructions quickly get the customers to the “Ah-ha” moment. The Ah-ha moment drives customer engagement by showing the value right away.
In a product led growth framework, user instructions are the onboarding experience for new users, supporting the journey from initial sign-up to active and engaged users. Well-designed onboarding experiences, supported by clear instructions, reduce friction and uncertainty, accelerating user adoption and minimizing churn.
Driving expansion and upsell in product led growth
User instructions contribute to product engagement and usage by supporting customers to explore and interact with the product. By providing step-by-step guidance, troubleshooting tips, and best practices, instructions encourage users to explore the product’s full potential.
As customers understand the product and find it valuable, they are more likely to reach out to purchase or expand previous purchases. They are more likely to renew, thus reducing churn. The best product led growth examples use product instructions to support the customer and get to that critical “Ah-ha” moment.
Good docs alone aren’t enough to sell your product, but poor docs are enough to abandon your product.
Sharon Burton, CEO Anthrobytes Media
And all this is done without touching the customer. With a strong and useful content ecosystem, customers can sell themselves on the value of your products. That’s the point to product led growth.
We can help
Anthrobytes Media can help your organization understand what you need to create a robust content ecosystem in product led growth that supports onboarding and product usage.
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