Sarah CarterDropbox has more than a $100 million users with more than a billion dollars worth in revenue. What made this startup achieve this exploding growth?
How did the startup set its momentum to achieve such a remarkable feat?
According to Darius Contractor, the former Growth Engineering Lead at the company provided an insight into this SaaS legend.
Dropbox’s unique vision of making document sharing easy is the only thing that made the software solution achieve its booming growth.
The real success of Dropbox came from its product-led growth (PLG) marketing, a growth strategy where the product itself becomes the primary driver of acquisition & retention.
So how exactly was Dropbox able to solve this problem?
Let us take a deeper look and understand how Dropbox stood the test of time and successfully engaged with visitors and customers.
Dropbox Realization – They Realized There’s a New Kind of Problem
We know that most companies are launched because they saw a problem that people are facing and came forward as problem solving machines. Entire teams and departments worked collaboratively to build a successful software solution designed to solve customer problems by applying proven marketing strategies & implementing management.
They saw a problem causing pain for computer users everywhere. They understood that resolving the Dropbox problem requires a more profound approach. It enabled customers to access files across a wide range of computers & devices within a single cloud environment. It was a fairly new concept, one which made document transfer a success.
The company wanted people to trust in them before clicking the “Download Dropbox” button. So Dropbox started their journey by reaching out to CommonCraft, an explainer video company to introduce their product by displaying it using a short animated video. It was made the highlight of the front page, other than filling out a form for sign-up.
At the time of implementation, Dropbox had somewhere around two million users.
Where is the Video Now?
As of currently, the video is no longer available on Dropbox.
In one of the events, Dropbox recently revealed that the company saw around 30,000 views per day which was approximately 900,000 views per month.
In just three years, the video saw a total of 30 million views making it one of the most viewed products across the Internet.
The video helped businesses across the Internet to understand what Dropbox is. It offered visitors a chance to learn how Dropbox made document management easy.
What Made Dropbox Video Marketing Work Proactively?
The video reached maximum reach in the online world.
The video served its purpose as an explanation.
The content of the video is not about features, or creating a marketing buzz or showcasing their technical superiority; it was simply designed to appear as an explainer video educating the audience.
The video simply answered one question: “Why should I care about this product?”
It helped skeptical customers understand the science behind the project, motivating them to overcome the skepticism and using Dropbox for their daily tasks.
The Video Format & Its Duration
The video was significantly brief, approximately around 2 minutes long.
It was a charming story of a person who solved his problem using Dropbox. The video contained elements like paper cut-outs and stop motion animation, a format most profoundly known as Common Craft Style. The Dropbox founder saw that such factors would work best for viewers, and made the explainer video a priority.
The Top-Down PLG Approach – Is the Approach Right for Your Business?
Are you a product based business? Are you in search of a way to give your business the break it needs? Dropbox is one such example that you can leverage upon.
As Darius, the lead chief engineer at Dropbox puts it, the top-down PLG approach is what made their business earn the top spot in SaaS markets. He also identified when a company is actually ready for a PLG approach.
When a company plans on adopting a top-down PLG approach for their particular organization, it’s essential that they should first check if the approach is satisfactory enough to be a good fit for their respective organization. After all, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution available in the market.
Therefore, it’s truly important that one should have complete alignment between a few things such as the product itself, the business model & the growth strategy.
According to Darius, the traditional top-down PLG approach for SaaS growth is all about building a remarkable product and employing sales to manually sell.
However, this approach only works when you have enough budget to run complex marketing campaigns, and have appropriate workflows.
Here are the three key markers which Darius explained as an effective part of his PLG strategy:
Make The Messaging Simple:
PLG works best when your product is simple enough for a user to understand.
It should be clear, concise and explain itself what it is. Also, it should provide adequate information on how it works. It should be easy enough for the average user to come out of his biases and make a purchasing decision. It works independent of a sales person.
It Must Have the Virality Factor:
While there are many incredible products in the market, nothing serves the purpose as effectively as one that is backed by a PLG marketing approach.
Dropbox is one such product example where the product is specifically designed to reach a wider audience.
the product works, and how it can benefit the user. This virality factor is essential for a successful PLG strategy, as it helps to create a network effect and drive organic growth.
Focus on Retention:
A key aspect of a successful PLG strategy is focusing on retaining users and reducing churn. This involves creating a product that provides ongoing value to users and keeps them engaged over time. Dropbox achieved this by offering a seamless and intuitive user experience, making it easy for users to access and share files across multiple devices.
By incorporating these key markers into their PLG strategy, Dropbox was able to achieve explosive growth and become a billion-dollar industry. Their success serves as a testament to the power of product-led growth and the importance of putting the product at the forefront of your marketing and sales efforts.
For businesses considering adopting a top-down PLG approach, it is important to evaluate whether your product, business model, and growth strategy are aligned. Moreover, ensuring that your product is simple, viral, and focused on retention will set the foundation for a successful PLG strategy.
Dropbox’s success with product-led growth marketing serves as a valuable case study for startups and established businesses alike. By understanding the key elements that contributed to their explosive growth, businesses can gain insights into how they can leverage their products to drive acquisition and retention. With a well-executed PLG strategy, organizations can achieve remarkable results and establish themselves as leaders in their respective industries.
Demi Jenkins