Marketing Nurtures vs. Sales Sequences
Which do you use and when? Here's my take.
Which is Better? Content-led vs. Event-led vs. Product-led Growth
Today's post is about helping you identify which offer-based growth strategy is right for your business model.
Mark Kilens
Oct 21, 2024
Today's post is about helping you identify which offer-based growth strategy is right for your business model.
Are you already using one and seeing great success and doubling down? Or do you plan to diversify into another area? Let's dive in.
Content-led Growth.
A method of creating, amplifying, and measuring content to grow revenue.
A method of creating, amplifying, and measuring content to grow revenue.
- Spans the entire buyer-customer journey
- Increases net-new and retained revenue
- Activates every content asset across different channels
- Involves the target audience in content ideation & distribution.
Traditional Content Marketing
- Spray & pray
- High volume, low focus
- No campaign focus
- Editorial-led
- ToFU / MoFU-focus
- Leads
Content-Led Growth
- Validate content themes before creation
- Low volume, high focus
- Built around thematic campaigns
- Audience-led
- Full-funnel focus
- Signals and Revenue
Great for businesses who need to educate the market and customers, who have the resources to create content in-house and with the help of external partners, and who have a clear point of view and a desire to standout in a market.
Event-led Growth
A GTM approach where events are the primary channel for acquiring and retaining customers.
- Spans the entire buyer-customer journey
- Includes in-person digital events, and webinars
- Activates each event across different channels
- Involves multiple teams in the planning and execution
Great for business who want to get closer to their buyers and customers, who don't have a lot of resources to create content, and who need to target the right buyers with specific messaging and content.
Product-led Growth
A business methodology in which user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention are all driven primarily by the product itself.
- Creates company-wide alignment
- Product as the largest source of growth
- Product first, sales second
- Empower buyers to experience the product before money is traded
Different Types of Product- Led Growth Motions
Freemium: Freemium plans offer a limited version of a product for free to attract new users
Freemium: Freemium plans offer a limited version of a product for free to attract new users
Free Trial: Free trials typically range from seven to 30 days
Interactive Demos: Tools that allow buyers to experience a product hands-on, without needing to be inside the product.
Reverse Trial: Free, time-limited access to more premium products than a typical free trial, but with a forever-free option for users who don’t convert
Free Tools: Users experiment with a limited version of our UI and solve a specific use case at no cost.
Open-Source: Non-proprietary offerings free for users to enjoy while producing revenue from a licensing model on premium services.
Great for businesses with a lower ACV with more volume coming in the door, with a product team dedicated to helping marketing figure out how to turn attention into revenue using the product, and for business that want to differentiate how they sell.
So there you have it. It's so clear what you should do, right? Kidding!
My rule of thumb is if you're an early startup, start with event-led growth (mostly online events to start) then transition into one of the others.
If you're a scaleup business, using one or more of the strategies, see which is performing the best and double down.
And if you're using all three, see what you're competitors aren't doing and do more of that.