Notion’s Head of Marketing on building a growth marketing engine at a PLG company — Rachel Hepworth
Apr 6, 2023
53:32
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Quick takeaways
To successfully implement product-led growth (PLG), marketing must align with the product and focus on driving meaningful top-of-funnel growth.
Metrics play a critical role in guiding growth marketing strategies in PLG companies, with activation rates serving as an early indicator of potential paying customers.
Balancing strategies to effectively reach and engage both B2C and B2B audiences is crucial for PLG companies, which involves targeting specific functions, leveraging user-generated content, and facilitating collaboration.
Deep dives
The Importance of Aligning Marketing with Product-Led Growth
To successfully implement product-led growth (PLG), marketing must align with the product and focus on driving meaningful top-of-funnel growth. While traditional marketing roles typically focus on building awareness and bringing people into the product, at PLG companies like Notion, marketing also plays a crucial role in ensuring users stay and find value in the product. This involves creating impactful channels and mechanisms for driving top-of-funnel growth, as well as optimizing the in-funnel experience through education and lifecycle management. By understanding the target audience and their goals, marketing can tailor strategies and content to support users throughout their journey, encouraging meaningful activation and conversion to paying customers.
The Role of Metrics in Product-Led Growth
Metrics play a critical role in guiding growth marketing strategies in PLG companies. Key metrics include the number of signups, activation rates, and the creation of paying customers. The activation metric is particularly important as it serves as an early indicator of potential paying customers. By tracking metrics related to product usage and user behavior within a short timeframe, companies can quickly iterate and optimize their strategies. Additionally, segmenting users by company size can help identify the most valuable customers and align marketing efforts accordingly. However, it is crucial to carefully choose metrics that align with the company's goals and avoid metrics that are easily manipulated or do not drive meaningful business value.
Balancing B2C and B2B Strategies in Product-Led Growth
PLG companies often have a combined B2C and B2B customer base, which requires balancing strategies to effectively reach and engage both audiences. Understanding the goals and needs of different customer segments is crucial for tailoring marketing efforts. For example, targeting specific functions within companies and positioning the product to help users achieve their goals can effectively drive awareness and interest. Leveraging user-generated content and encouraging community engagement can also generate brand awareness and interest, particularly in a B2C context. Transitioning users from personal use to team use and facilitating collaboration further enables the expansion of PLG products into the B2B market, creating a strong revenue model.
Planning and Prioritizing in a Marketing Team
Effective planning and prioritization are essential for marketing teams to drive growth. The process starts by aligning marketing goals with overall company strategy, understanding the target audience, and optimizing the marketing mix for maximum impact. By focusing on the highest leverage activities that directly contribute to achieving company objectives, resources can be allocated effectively. It is crucial to make strategic trade-offs and eliminate initiatives that do not align with company priorities. Balancing ongoing work, pulse initiatives, and major launches helps ensure continuous progress and allows the team to adapt to market dynamics. The goal is to create a cohesive roadmap that drives growth and leverages the company's unique strengths.
Building Business Intuition and Cross-Functional Understanding
To be effective marketers, it is essential to develop a deep understanding of the business context and to collaborate closely with other functions. This includes regularly sharing insights and learnings with the team, attending cross-functional meetings, and gaining exposure to different areas of the company. Biweekly all-team meetings that provide updates on business performance and discuss the interconnectedness of functions can help build business intuition. Encouraging team members to learn from leaders at other companies in similar industries can also provide valuable insights. By fostering a cross-functional perspective and enhancing business understanding, marketers can better align their strategies and contribute to the company's overall success.
Our guest today is Rachel Hepworth, Head of Marketing at Notion.
Rachel currently runs growth marketing at Notion, and sees her job as bringing process and control to all of Notion’s different marketing channels. Before joining Notion, Rachel launched the first growth marketing team at Slack, laying down the tracks for a well-oiled go-to-market strategy that could be measured easily.
Much like Slack, Notion has made a name for itself largely through customer love and a powerful word-of-mouth recommendation engine. As a metrics-focused marketer, Rachel opens up her playbook on how she lassos that kind of word-of-mouth growth and the analytical approach she has toward acquiring and retaining customers.
In our conversation today, we focus on the nuts and bolts of what growth marketing looks like inside an organization that’s driven by product-led growth. Rachel shares tactical advice on:
Why high-speed feedback cycles are so important
Early indicators of which sign-ups are most likely to convert to paid customers
Her process for adjusting which top-of-funnel metrics to track over time
How marketing, product and sales all work together at Notion to own a different part of the customer funnel
You can follow Rachel on Twitter at @rachelhepworth. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.
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