How a Little Known Business Growth Strategy Can Successfully Grow a Company to 8-Figures
In order to explain the concept of Minimum Viable Audience (MVA) to you, and how it applies to business growth and product development, I’m going to use the example of Copyblogger. Copyblogger is an online resource that features a wealth of information that’s useful to any marketer or content creator. The business was started in 2006, and its 8-figure success can absolutely be emulated by any business-owner to create lasting success.
We were born with two ears and one mouth. But who would have guessed that those two ears are a money-making superpower? In the case of Copyblogger’s eight-figure success, the secret is simple: Listen, and then follow through on the things that you see in the marketplace surrounding your community and your audience.
It all starts out with discovering an audience, then slowly building what this audience wants over time. Not developing a product before audience.
Once you understand what an audience wants, you can create a product that fulfills that need in the marketplace. Another way to put it is to find a “Minimum Viable Audience” (MVA). Once you find a group of people who need a product that you can create, create this product, and then show them what you’ve created that supplies their need.
First: Sit Back & Listen
Instead of getting something out the door in an effort to make money in 2006, Copyblogger listened and then moved on to create a product only after they were clear on what their audience wanted.
You see, when it comes to product creation, MVP has been skewed. People oftentimes run in the wrong direction. It’s a process. Listen first, sit back. And through that type of listening, you will see patterns.
Your community and potential audience have needs that need to be fulfilled. Get to know them. Hear them when they say, “If only I had this piece of information or this tool that would do XYZ.”
Do people need it? The viable is the most important part of the puzzle, because it needs to be something that’s usable.
Next, figure out what the smallest piece is that you can deliver. You don’t want to do too much before the market is going to respond to it.
Create a great launch product.
Then learn and observe. We have this idea. Let’s see if the market likes it, accepts it, and runs with it.
“We have to swallow our pride and recognize that, in order to compete for the future (of business), we’ve got to become a student again. It’s Tolstoy’s quote about how we all talk of change but none of us talk about changing ourselves.” –Brian Solis
Then, Deliver Value
You will make money if you provide quality.
Start out with something of value. Deliver small bits of quality and then build on those small bits of quality to create the product that will fulfill what your audience wants and needs.
Then, listen again. If you have MVA, once your audience has its hands on the product that you created, it will continue to give you feedback about what else it would like to get from this product as time goes on.
Put a new product out there to an audience, and you’ll get a flood of people saying, “Can it also do this?” “And can it do that?”
To make money, it’s all about figuring out what customers want – and then delivering it in a way that delights
Use The Pilot-Release Model to Evolve the Product
What can you put in there that’s not too much so that you can iterate and evolve and meet the customer’s need? Build a “starter” product that you can build on and improve over time.
Copyblogger uses a lot of pilot releases. The main difference with a pilot release is that the product is at the production-level. Pilot groups can help to evolve the product by providing feedback on each iteration.
Clearly outline what the benefits of that product will be, then work on development of the product, whether its software, information or design.
The development process organically helps create the marketing materials that clearly communicate how a product is beneficial.
Focus on the outcomes, and features will follow that.
Don’t Just Build a Product, Build a Business (Yes, there is a big difference.)
What is the marketplace reaction to your products? What are customers saying — now?
Building a business means that you continue to observe, even after you’ve released the product. How can we go further and deeper with this? Continue to identify what it is your audience needs and then deliver that. Start with: “Here’s a small piece of what you’ve asked for. It takes care of A-C.” And then go on to develop D-G. And so on and so forth.
Listening very carefully to what’s happening in the marketplace, and then putting something together that will meet those needs, is what will take a business to 8-figures.
Continue to iterate by listening again. Listen in and then determine the next steps for both product and company growth. It’s an organic process. Know what you will need to add next in terms of support staff, development staff – and everything else — from marketing to product development.
Everything at Copyblogger follows this model, and it’s how they reached eight figures in less than 10 years.
Stay Humble, My Friends
Growing a sustainable business requires work, discipline and listening. Not ego… or the thing that says “I need a big business”.
Growing this way (organically) enables companies to remain agile. You can change as the market changes. You can stay ahead of the pack. When you start adding features, you know you’re adding the features that people want. You’ve gotten feedback and you’re responding to that feedback. As a result, risk decreases and your ROI increases.
At Search Strategy Marketing, we grow businesses this way. By listening and fine-tuning and making adjustments to increase ROI. Marketing is a way of business; our role is integral in growing our clients’ businesses. We focus on engagement, understanding who the customer is, how they’re different from customers before, and what they need. Then we build a digital infrastructure around that. It’s an infrastructure that’s complementary to the real world for the purpose of delivering an entirely new and meaningful experience to those who matter — customers.
It’s all about co-creation with your customers and your colleagues. It’s being humble and asking questions like: Should we do this? Would this be of value?
Marketing is not a department, it’s a way of business. Marketing identifies what customers need, and delivers it — effectively.
When companies follow these principles when building a product or an organization, they will be able to scale in a way that keeps everything stable and allow for adjustment.
It’s integral to win customer lifetime value, and to keep delighting people. And to remain agile. You’re continually supplying what your audience wants and needs, you will continue to delight.
Take a lean, agile approach to product iteration and to growing a business by using the MVA model. Add people at the right time. Don’t add people until you really need them.
Final note: Building a product or business this way is a continuous loop. Go back to step one of listening and taking in what they’ve said and delivering it, then listen to feedback and then add in the next step — and go on, and on, and on this way. Remember MVA – it will work to your advantage.
