LTV Talks with Karan (Karan Tibdewal)

Dara & Madduck started by creating their own apps & they were successful. Then they failed at a few. During the process, they found a way to systemise insights & focus areas for subscription app developers. They've been helping app developers ever since through Madduck Publishing & Insights.

In this episode, we talk about the journey of getting to Madduck insights & some observations from the sometimes confusing world of growth for app developers.

You can reach out to Dara on his Linkedin, or you can integrate Madduck in less than 5 minutes on their website.

In this episode, I spoke with Lana Dubinsky. Lana comes with tons of monetisation experience with her prior roles as Senior Director of Product at IMVU. More recently, she also found Women & AI. She works independently as a product advisor to a lot of gaming companies.

Lana discusses how she had been already using machine learning (ML) to foster monetisation & innovation at companies before gen AI became a rage. It was an interesting conversation, that I hope you can also get some value out of! Enjoy!

In this episode, I am sharing a recent talk I gave at the App Promotion Summit demonstrating my projects with Blacklane & Blinkist.

You can check out the entire talk, also from other speakers here.

In today’s episode, I spoke to Roma who is currently the Head of CRM at Lovoo about her views on the evolution of CRM into being a product function. Her CRM team recently moved from being a Marketing function to being a Product function. 

We talk about Roma's journey from being a budding journalist to currently heading the department at Lovoo. We talk about how CRM has evolved over the years from being a promotion centre for brands to a crucial retention driver for apps & brands.

Founded in 2012, LOVOO is a leading European dating app and the largest German-speaking dating app by downloads. The privately held company is part of The Meet Group and is available in 15 languages.

If you enjoy the episode, consider leaving me a review. I'd love to know how I can improve this project. If you wanted to get in touch with Roma you can find her on Linkedin here.

In this week's episode, I speak with Emmanuelle Arrault, VP of CRM at Deezer. She was previously Head of Customer Engagement with Betclic and Director of CRM Strategy at Sephora.

We talk about the role of data in CRM over the years, CRM team structures over the years and the playbook to build and train a CRM team for business growth.

You can reach out to Emma through her LinkedIn profile here.

I host 1-hour sessions to help CRM teams get trained on important lifecycle marketing aspects. You can check it out here.

In this week's episode, I chatted with Karan Gupta, currently leading CRM at Marley Spoon. He previously has also worked with Grover where he helped them reduce net customer churn to less than 1% from 7% within 6 months as well as transformed and optimized core engagement & retention metrics during the Black Friday mania: Activation rate (+52%),  upsell rate (+140%),  reactivation rate (+83%), win-back rate (+58%). He played an instrumental role in evolving Marley Spoon's CRM team to cope with their hypergrowth phase as well.

Some of the topics we covered in the session:

1. How Karan helped Grover's CRM team evolve from a support function to a key growth driver.
2. We talk about how to get senior leadership to buy in for CRM initiatives.
3. We discuss how Karan uses the "Unify, Orchestrate & Personalize" framework to drive great CRM results.
4. Marley Spoon has grown more than 800% in the last 5 years & CRM played a key role in this growth. We spoke about what it meant to support this growth from a team evolution perspective and manage such hyper-growth scenarios.
5. We speak about the industry changes from a CRM perspective - org. structure, team setup, etc.

Enjoy the episode!

In the episode, we cover a lot of interesting subjects - such as

1️⃣ James's journey from being a medical device engineer to being the head of growth at Aampe.

2️⃣ Discussed how a consultant like myself would approach setting up CRM for a client & how Aampe can help you do the same while generating a higher volume of insights & positions the CRM team to be an insight generator for the organisation.

3️⃣ Thoughts on why user journeys might be too static & where the current pain points and obstacles are for CRM teams in the way we are used to doing things.

4️⃣ Why you might be better off by letting go of user lifecycle stage thinking & let AI/ML optimize each individual user based on what motivates users to use your app.

5️⃣ How you can let AI/ML techniques A/B test thousands of variants & optimize for metrics while you can focus on feeding these insights to other parts of the org. Future of AI, ML in CRM, how Aampe can generate & label 100,000 plus messages from chatGPT & optimize what your audience is receiving while you work on other important aspects of your business.

In this conversation, Daniel Layfield, former Growth Lead at Code Academy & founder of Subscription Index shares insights on monetizing subscription businesses. He discusses his transition from JP Morgan to Code Academy and the challenges of transitioning to a subscription model.

Daniel emphasizes the importance of focusing on the fundamentals of pricing, paywalls, checkout pages, and churn tactics. He also highlights the significance of metrics and data analysis in optimizing monetization. Additionally, Daniel discusses team structures, the balance between speed and accuracy in product development, and the impact of unnecessary complexity on velocity. The conversation covers topics such as planning for success and maintenance, A/B testing and experimentation, trends and opportunities in 2024, and increasing LTV through pricing.

Takeaways

• Startups should plan for the scenario where they are successful and need to maintain their systems.
• A/B testing should be used selectively and only for complex changes or high-risk areas.
• In 2024, big companies are focusing on profitability and finding ways to generate more revenue from each account.
• There is a gap at the bottom of the market for B2B SaaS tools, creating opportunities for newer companies.
• Raising prices and removing free trials are strategies to increase LTV.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:10 Transition from JP Morgan to Code Academy

03:05 Joining Code Academy and Focus on Monetization

05:10 Challenges of Transitioning to a Subscription Model

08:45 Team Structure and Challenges in Subscription Growth

10:35 Importance of Fundamentals in Subscription Business

13:35 Churn Tactics and Payment Processing

19:49 Common Pitfalls in Subscription Monetization

24:55 Importance of Metrics and Data Analysis

26:36 Team Setups and Organization Structures

34:01 The Importance of Speed in Product Development

37:13 Balancing Speed and Accuracy

38:19 Planning for Success and Maintenance

39:13 A/B Testing and Experimentation

44:02 Trends and Opportunities in 2024

45:28 Increasing LTV through Pricing

In this week's episode, I interview Nikita who has a unique view of looking at paywall optimisations & onboarding. He has a strong developer background & has led various product teams at Adapty, Welps, Wheely, etc.

The episode is focused on understanding Nikita's approach to identifying app developers' key problems & generating a solution for these problems, especially around conversions. App developers & marketers working for subscription apps will find a lot of key insights in the episode, coming from a very rich & practical experience in the field.

Background on Nikita:

Nikita currently is the founder of Paywall.tips where he has been helping app developers with subscriptions on product management topics. He previously has led mobile & product teams at Wheely, Adapty & Welps.

If you wanted to reach out to Nikita you can always find him on Linkedin. He regularly posts his views on paywall optimisation on his website paywall.tips.

Highlights from this episode:

• Nikita's journey to becoming a paywall optimisation expert.
• Why optimising your paywall might be one of the most crucial parts of revenue & LTV optimisation
• How did Nikita help generate 8x conversions at Welps
• Evolution of subscription as a key monetisation tactic for non-gaming apps
• Role of personalisation in-app onboarding & the increasing need to be relevant in your onboarding experience.
• Nikita's approach to helping app developers deliver a better onboarding experience through experimentation & prioritisation
• Pricing as a lever for subscription monetisation

Don't forget to review the show & send me your feedback, comments as well as any future guests you'd like for me to invite to the show!

Jenny Kay Pollock leads monetization at Together Labs, where she focuses on strategies that help keep IMVU a top social app.  Previously, she drove customer strategy for an ad tech company and created systems to manage customer relationships for two leading augmented reality startups. Jenny routinely speaks on mobile monetization, women in the workplace, and building a tech career. She has published on these topics in outlets like Forbes, Hackernoon and Ellevate.

In this episode, we talk about Jenny's framework for diversifying your monetization strategy, and her qualitative background that helps her to have a unique perspective & enables her to leverage user research to increase revenue.

• Jenny's website where you can find tons of free & helpful resources on monetization diversification, Leveraging User Research to Increase Revenue,  Worksheet & more.
• Jenny's Linkedin profile
• Together Labs - Creator of IMVU

In this episode, I had a chance to talk with Annalize van Deijl (Head of CRM at Mr. D Foods) about a topic that's always been fascinating - how does someone get into and excel in CRM. In the hour, we spoke about Annalize's journey from being a cabin crew at Emirates to being a Head of CRM, and how CRM as a field has evolved over time. Often folks start out in CRM, with a data, tech or ops background, Annalize talks about what she looks in new hires and much more!

I interview Micahel - Co-founder & CEO of Qonversion IO in this episode.

We discuss the pain points of managing subscriptions for mobile apps at various growth stages. We briefly also discuss Michael's journey from a Physics background to building a company to help app developers with their subscriptions.

I found Michael's journey fascinating as he drops a lot of insights into how the industry & space has evolved over the last 4-6 years. Finally, team structure & organisation roles are still unclear for a lot of apps & Michael talks about what is the secret sauce based on his conversations with hundreds of app developers. 

Some highlight topics from the episode:

• The rise of the subscription economy & the need for third-party solutions
• Challenges & pitfalls of A/B testing
• Lack of communication b/w product, engineering & marketing teams for subscription monetisation
• Future of gaming apps, as they start trying subscription models.
• Paywall strategies for mobile app developers

If you enjoy listening to the episode - consider sharing it with your fellow professionals or leaving a word to me on my Linkedin.

Tags: Subscription apps, Monetisation, Subscription Optimization, App Engagement.  

You can check out Qonversion.io & some of their brilliant case studies on their website here. You can also reach out to Michael on his LinkedIn profile here.

Don't forget to tune into Michael's podcast on App revenue Growth here. He has interviewed experts from Bumble, Klarna, App Radar, Google, & more on a lot of relevant topics.

In this one, I sat down with Maya Shamray (Product Manager at Adapty.io) for a candid & exciting chat on tools, tactics & strategies for subscription optimisation for app developers. What tools they can use, which team structures work better, what can you A/B test for maximal impact, hybrid pricing, & how app developers should use benchmarks, among other things.

Since Maya Shamray is working really closely with thousand of app developers and is on the front line of helping create a solution, it was fascinating to get her perspective on the following:

1️⃣ Who owns monetisation & sub-optimisation in a team, ranging from a small app company of 5-10 to apps with thousands of employees? Does marketing or product on the topic in these companies?

2️⃣ How does a tool like Adapty.io help app developers & businesses on this journey to increase subscription revenue? We talked about how to prioritize your A/B testing roadmap, depending on the growth stage of your app.

3️⃣ Hybrid pricing & discussing how apps can optimize their subscription offerings.

4️⃣ How much do the conversion rates vary b/w top apps to an indie app - what does this mean for practitioners who want to use subscription benchmarks to orient & analyse their performance?

5️⃣ Can app developers predict LTV accurately? We discuss how Adapty.io might be actually better at it than the app developers themselves since they sit on a wealth of data.

Some useful resources to go with the podcast

¹Apple's peer group benchmarks for subscription apps

²Adapty's take on whether Apple's peer group benchmarks are any good

³How to price mobile subscriptions

⁴Top reasons why users go from freemium to premium

Socials & Websites

⁠Maya's Linkedin profile⁠

⁠Adapty.io⁠

Summary

In this episode, I interview Allison Bryant, a senior lifecycle marketer at 10 percent Happier.

Allison shares her experience of starting a team from scratch and building marketing infrastructure for the company's growth. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer journey and collaborating with other teams. Allison also discusses the role of CRM as a force multiplier and the need for prioritization in driving impactful initiatives.

In this conversation, Allison discusses various strategies and tactics for increasing engagement and preventing churn in a meditation app. She shares insights on the power of re-engagement campaigns, the effectiveness of rerunning challenges, and the importance of repetition in messaging. Allison also explores the use of AI and LLMs for copywriting and highlights the proactive approach to churn prevention. She emphasizes the strategic role of lifecycle marketing in driving LTV growth and offers advice for founders and teams looking to optimize their CRM efforts.

Takeaways

• Starting a team from scratch requires understanding the customer journey and collaborating with other teams.
• CRM is a force multiplier that can significantly impact growth and retention.
• Prioritization is crucial in maximizing the impact of CRM initiatives.
• User insights are key in driving impactful initiatives and optimizing the customer journey. Reengagement campaigns can be highly effective in increasing engagement and preventing churn.
• Rerunning challenges and courses can provide valuable re-engagement opportunities for users.
• Repetition is key in messaging, as people often need to hear things multiple times in different ways to break through.
• AI and LLMs can be powerful tools for copywriting and personalization in CRM efforts.
• Proactive churn prevention strategies, such as re-engagement campaigns before renewal, can significantly impact retention.
• Lifecycle marketing plays a strategic role in increasing LTV and should be seen as a partner in growth.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Background
• 02:13 Transition to CRM Role04:56Starting the CRM Role at 10% Happier
• 07:34 Mapping the Customer Journey09:14Collaboration with Other Teams
• 13:03 CRM as a Force Multiplier
• 19:04 Importance of Prioritization
• 24:40 Evolution of Priorities and Skills
• 30:55 Using User Insights for Impactful Initiatives
• 33:59 Discovering the Power of Reengagement
• 36:10 Rerunning Challenges for Engagement and Revenue
• 40:12 The Importance of Repetition in Messaging
• 43:53 Using AI and LLMs for Copywriting
• 52:15 Proactive Churn Prevention
• 59:02 Preventing Churn with Reengagement Campaigns
• 01:06:03 The Strategic Role of Lifecycle Marketing

Our guest for this episode is Andrei Dinca, the CRM lead at Wise. Andrei has also previously worked as an independent consultant as well as a Senior CRM manager at Memrise.

Wise is a UK-based foreign exchange financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011.

In this episode, we discuss how CRM can be a lever for Growth for Fintech companies. 

We explore the key facets of developing a well-functioning CRM team at a Fintech company such as CRM team setup, measurement of CRM impact on Growth, and key pillars of CRM strategy for Wise. Andrei also shares with us his journey of building up a CRM team from 1 to now 18 as CRM becomes a key engagement & growth driver within the company. 

You can get in touch with Andrei through his LinkedIn. 

Tags: CRM for Fintech, Consumer loyalty, Growth, CRM teams

In this episode, I spoke with Tobias - Head of CRM Europe at Delivery Hero.

We spoke about how Tobi transitioned from starting his journey at Delivery Hero in CRM to now leading a team of CRM specialists. We also talk about what CRM migrations & rebranding projects entail - both in terms of strategy & execution.

You can reach out to Tobias on his LinkedIn profile here.

In this episode/masterclass on retention strategies, I sit down with Ioana Iordache, Global Head of Retention at Blacklane, to discuss all things retention and engagement.

Join us as we dive into Ioana's unique background and path to working at Blacklane, how the team structures and understands retention given the complexity of their audience system, and Blacklane's north star for retention on both the chauffeur and passenger sides.

We also discuss our recent joint project, the Rewards Framework for Chauffeurs, and the importance of using solid frameworks as the base of your retention projects. Plus, we touch on how to structure your team using the IDEO activation framework. Finally, we also talk about the evolving team structures and needs of a retention team of the future.

1. Ioana's LinkedIn profile
2. Blacklane website
3. Ioana's talk at APS
4. IDEO Activation straetgy
   

In this episode, me & Vahe talk about 

• His early days at Coinstats
• How apps can optimise their monetisation strategies - Willingness to pay surveys, Geo-testing, Pricing tests on platforms, etc.
• Opinions on using industry best-practices - does video paywall, or long-form paywall a proven success tactic?
• Metrics that you need for an overview of your subscription performance.

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Tim Wiegels explore the intricacies of CRM data, focusing on effective measurement strategies, common pitfalls in CRM teams, and the importance of understanding the broader business context.

Tim shares his journey from academia to data leadership, emphasizing the need for CRM teams to align their metrics with overall business goals and to avoid siloed thinking. The discussion also touches on the challenges of managing control groups and the potential overload of CRM tools, advocating for a more strategic approach to data utilization.

In this conversation, wel discuss the challenges and strategies surrounding CRM tools, customer data management, and the importance of understanding customer lifetime value. The emphasis for teams to define their strategies, leverage AI for data analysis, and focus on retention in the evolving landscape of marketing.

The discussion also highlights the significance of data literacy and the future of CRM in a data-driven world.takeaways

• Understanding ROI on CRM tools is crucial.
• Teams often focus too narrowly on their KPIs.
• A holistic view of the funnel is essential.
• Vouchers can lead to revenue loss if mismanaged.
• CRM goals should align with overall business objectives.
• Control groups need regular refreshing to remain valid.
• Data teams must communicate effectively with management.
• Incrementality and uplift modeling are key measurement strategies.
• Headspace is necessary for effective data analysis.
• Freelancing allows for more focused project work. CRM teams often rely too heavily on tools without understanding their full capabilities.
• It's crucial to segment customer data effectively to drive better marketing strategies.
• Defining a clear strategy is essential for CRM teams to succeed.
• Customer lifetime value is complex and requires a deep understanding of customer behavior.
• AI can significantly enhance data analysis and decision-making processes.
• Teams should focus on retention strategies as acquisition becomes more challenging.
• Data literacy is vital for marketing teams to manipulate and understand data effectively.
• Using AI tools can streamline processes and improve efficiency in data handling.
• Understanding the value segments of customers can help in targeted marketing efforts.
• Effective communication and collaboration between teams are key to successful CRM implementation.

Tim's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwiegels/

Tim's Podcast: https://tr.ee/DCtUqUirY_

Enjoy this conversation!

For this episode, I spoke with Thiery Sequeira - CEO of Massive Rocket. Massive Rocket has been accelerating CRM & customer data projects for brands all across the world.

Thiery shares his journey of creating Massive Rocket & his early experiences working with CRM tools. He shares his insights on how the industry has evolved over the last few years & how Massive Rocket has been helping clients get to value, quickly.

I hope you enjoy the episode and consider rating it - if you enjoyed it.

In this episode, I spoke with Jaycee Day, a Senior Product Designer at GitHub. She previously worked at Blinkist where she helped them drive a 23% increase in trial conversion, a 55% reduction in customer complaints & a 1000%+ increase in push opt-in rates. The paywall she designed along with the team is now being prescribed by both Apple & Google. In this episode we talk about:

• The BLINKIST paywall & process Jaycee & the team used to get there. The paywall, which is now prescribed by both Apple & Google led to a 23% increase in trial conversion, a 1000% increase in push opt-ins & 55% reduction in customer complaints with a single paywall.  We also talk about the company’s culture which often is a BIG plus when implementing these solutions.
• How do you design for both business outcomes and people outcomes? Can ethical design lead to better results for your app?
• Typical areas & processes that Jaycee recommends you look into for optimising your onboarding & conversion flows—her thoughts on using best practices for your paywall design, etc.
• How can you use qualitative research to influence your onboarding & conversion funnels?
• How do you decide how long your onboarding flow should be? Does a longer flow guarantee lower onboarding rates? How does it vary based on the app vertical?
• We shortly also discussed how ethical design will be a crucial component of an app’s onboarding, and conversion flows as the users start demanding more from their apps & their data.

Socials

• Jaycee's Linkedin profile
• Jaycee's Twitter profile

Articles

• How Solving Our Biggest Customer Complaint at Blinkist Led to a 23% Increase in Conversion
• How we got a 98% success rate for our bot for Zalando — A UX case study
• The Powerful Fix to the Usability Testing Process

Contact: If you want to work with Jaycee, you can reach out to her at hi@jayceeday.com.

Summary

In this conversation, I interview Sundar Swaminathan, a marketing data science leader, about his journey from software development to B2C marketing analytics.

Sundar shares insights from his time at Uber, emphasizing the importance of a data-driven culture and psychological safety in fostering innovation.

We discuss the challenges of lifecycle marketing, the significance of personalization, and strategies for maximizing impact while minimizing effort. The conversation highlights the need for clear lifecycle definitions and the role of leadership in creating an environment conducive to data-driven decision-making.

In this conversation, Sundar and I delve into the intricacies of personalization in marketing, discussing its varying importance across different industries. We also explore the strategic use of discounts and promotions to enhance user engagement, emphasizing the need for A/B testing to validate marketing strategies. Sundar shares insights on overcoming barriers to experimentation, highlighting the human factors that often hinder progress. The discussion also covers the significance of strategic measurement in marketing efforts, particularly the use of health metrics to gauge business performance effectively.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Sundar Swaminathan
• 07:56 Creating Psychological Safety in Data-Driven Environments
• 13:55 Understanding Lifecycle Marketing and Its Importance
• 29:01 Maximizing Impact through Effective Personalization
• 35:03 Leveraging Discounts and Promotions for User Engagement
• 40:40 Overcoming Barriers to Experimentation
• 49:10 Strategic Measurement in Marketing
• 55:32 Understanding Health Metrics for Business Success

Keywords

B2C marketing, data science, marketing analytics, psychological safety, lifecycle marketing, personalization, Uber, data-driven culture, experimentation, marketing strategies, personalization, marketing, A/B testing, user engagement, measurement, health metrics, lifecycle marketing, discounts, experimentation, data science

Giulia Penna, Director of Growth at Clue, discusses the topic of reporting in CRM teams and organisations. She shares her career progression, from working in startups to becoming a freelancer before joining Clue.

Giulia highlights the importance of reporting in CRM and the challenges she faced when she joined the company. She emphasizes the need for structure, planning, and reliable reporting to measure the impact of CRM campaigns.

We also discussed the evolution of CRM and the changing expectations in reporting and attribution. In this conversation, Giulia discusses the importance of clear communication and oversharing in a team, as well as the value of repetition and making information easily accessible.

She emphasizes the need for trust in reporting and the importance of having confidence in the numbers being shared. Giulia also discusses the balance between using existing reporting tools and working with the data team to improve reporting accuracy. She highlights the need for reporting to focus on company metrics and the impact of campaigns, rather than just campaign-level metrics.

Additionally, Giulia touches on the role of a CRM manager in clear communication, recognition of team efforts, and the evolving nature of reporting with the integration of AI tools.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode of LTV Talks, we talk about email deliverability. In the fight against spam, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) put more and more restrictions on access to the user’s mailbox. This all works to the users’ benefit – it lets them have a clean mailbox with content they want to receive and an experience they expect. Anne-Sophie is a deliverability consultant at Iterable and has over 10 years of experience in the field helping brands improve how they reach their users.

In this episode, we go into the details of deliverability. We discuss:

1. Why email is STILL a powerful & trustworthy CRM channel for brands
2. At what stage of your CRM setup, should you start caring about email deliverability?
3. What should your email deliverability tool stack look like from Day 0?
4. What are some of the common Pitfalls for brands to avoid?
5. How often should you review your deliverability performance & how should you do it?
6. Upcoming trends email marketers should keep an eye out for? AMP, DMARC, BIMI

Anne-Sophie is an expert in the field of email & deliverability. She has worked with brands like Epsilon, and EmailVision & now is a deliverability consultant at Iterable. You can find her on Linkedin, consider following her for a constant stream of deliverability wisdom.

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or following us on social media for more content on mindfulness and wellness.

Resources recommended by Anne-Sophie for clean & trustworthy deliverability knowledge:

• Email geeks (Slack channel)
• Word to the wise
• Spam Resource
• Kickbox
• Inbox Expo (conference)

In this episode, I had the pleasure to interview Jakub Chour who is driving growth for HER app (a FLINTA dating & community work). We discuss his team's approach to leading organic growth initiatives & his learnings from various product growth experiments.

Our guest for this episode is Jakub Chour, a growth expert with over 5 years of experience helping apps drive growth through various methods including SEO, Subscription pricing, app store optimization (ASO) & more.

We discussed various topics during this conversation & you can find some of the key topics below:

1. Being a T-shaped marketer: Jakub is truly a T-shaped marketer with experience spanning across UA, SEO, CRM & Paid marketing.
2. Individual growth contributor vs people manager: Jakub's recent decision to move away from being a people manager and rather focus on being an individual contributor for Growth.
3. Driving Organic Growth for HER app through the minimum shareable product (MSP): Jakub describes their team approach of focusing on organic growth channels & finding avenues of growth with a minimum shareable product concept where the team is building web apps to drive brand value outside of its app use-case. We also talk about the various smoke tests that the team runs to validate these growth ideas.
4. Why it might be wiser for growth teams to focus on a sophisticated win-back journey vs trying to build a churn prediction model or a likelihood-to-buy model?
5. Finally, we wrap up with Jakub's tip for opportunities & traps for app growth.

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review or following the podcast for more content on LTV & Subscription app growth.

Tags: organic app growth, subscription growth, T-shaped marketer, CRM.

Relevant resources:

• HER app
• Jakub's Linkedin
• App Growth Strategies from Fabulous and HER
• How iOS 14.5+ impacted Paid Ads Revenues
• App pricing optimization guide by Jakub
• What Growth management tools should you use?

In this talk, I described an onboarding case study with a health & fitness app called Lifesum. We used behavioral psychology research to create an onboarding checklist program and delivered it entirely through CRM channels.

The talk goes through the key steps in delivering and measuring such projects through understanding CRM leverage, having the right team mindset as well as staying away from some key data traps.

Here's an experimental podcast episode, created entirely by Google's NotebookLM. When I was starting out, this playbook from Amplitude was the most helpful resource that I found, studied and applied as cleanly as possible. It's a comprehensive guide to mastering user retention, which is crucial for achieving sustainable product growth.

The playbook emphasises that retaining existing users is as important as acquiring new ones, and that focusing on retention impacts all critical business metrics. The central theme is the Retention Lifecycle Framework, which categorises users into four stages: New Users, Current Users, Resurrected Users, and Dormant Users. This framework facilitates tailored retention strategies for each user group, focusing on shifting the retention curve up by improving the new user experience and flattening the curve by nurturing long-term user engagement. The playbook outlines specific steps for analysing user behaviour in each stage, including identifying behavioral personas, and using various product analysis tools like cohort analysis, funnel analysis, stickiness analysis, and session metrics, to gain insights into user actions and drivers of retention. It emphasises the importance of experimentation and iterative improvements, providing practical examples and recommendations for implementing strategies to enhance user retention throughout the lifecycle. The playbook concludes by highlighting the importance of setting concrete retention goals, monitoring key metrics, and prioritising experiments for continuous growth.

Episode Summary

Janet Mao, an experienced product professional (previously at Blinkist), discusses the collaboration between product and CRM teams. She shares her career trajectory and highlights the importance of CRM in product development. Janet explains the challenges faced when working together and provides advice for CRM professionals on collaborating with product teams. In this conversation, Janet and Karan discuss the collaboration between CRM and product teams. They share examples of how merging features and using CRM as a testing ground can lead to increased engagement and adoption. They also explore the idea of a shared CRM resource for product teams and the benefits it brings. The conversation touches on the trend of removing lines between product and CRM and Airbnb's approach to product marketing and product management. The key takeaway is the importance of focusing on goals rather than functions and the value of collaboration in achieving those goals.

Takeaways:

• Collaboration between product and CRM teams is crucial for successful product development.
• Understanding the goals and strengths of each team is essential for effective collaboration.
• Education sessions and knowledge sharing help bridge the gap between product and CRM teams.
• Including CRM in the early stages of product development leads to better user engagement and retention.
• Clear communication and alignment on goals are key to successful collaboration. Merging features and using CRM as a testing ground can lead to increased engagement and adoption.
• A shared CRM resource for product teams can help bridge the gap between CRM and product and ensure alignment with the overall CRM strategy.
• The trend of removing lines between product and CRM is gaining traction, with companies like Airbnb combining product marketing and product management.
• Focusing on goals rather than functions is crucial for effective collaboration between CRM and product teams.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:32 Janet's Career Trajectory

06:19 Collaboration between Product and CRM

11:25 Building the Social Community at Blinkist

16:33 The Importance of CRM in Product Development

22:33 Including CRM in Non-Social Products

28:57 Hurdles in Working Together

33:16 Advice for CRM Professionals Working with Product Teams

40:57 Merging Spaces into the Library Feature

42:20 CRM as a Testing Ground for Product

44:09 Shared CRM Resource for Product Teams

47:56 The Trend of Removing Lines Between Product and CRM

48:36 Airbnb's Approach to Product Marketing and Product Management

53:10 Focusing on Goals Rather Than Functions

55:12 The Importance of Collaboration and Working Together

In this episode, me and Nina talk about common misconceptions or topics that receive undue attention sometimes in the customer engagement space. Most CRM teams find themselves at some stage talking about

👉 Email marketing topics such as email designs,

👉 Subject line testing - should we go short, long, funny, etc.

👉 Personalization in lifecycle marketing - how & when to do this effectively?

👉 Gamification - but struggle to see whether they create any business impact.

You can reach out to Nina on her Linkedin & do let us know if there are any misconceptions you want us to talk about in an eventual Part 2!