Creating a new product category — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
- Part 1 Creating a new product category — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
- Part 2Why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
Show Notes
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02:19DocSends creation of a new product categoryDocSend was created in response to the need for an easier way to send links. What they ended up creating was an entirely new category.
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04:54Building for the end user vs the economic buyer at the enterpriseWhether or not you need to classify your specific category depends on if you're building software for the enterprise or end user. DocSend is built for the end user.
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07:10Marketing for different use casesDocSend was built in a way that accommodates a variety of uses. Instead of marketing to one specific use, DocSend and other companies are marketing to different use cases.
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09:35Adding utility onto existing products to drive revenueDocSend is constantly thinking about what the next vertical is. But, rather than giving up on current marketing tactics, its about adding the new marketing tactics on top of current ones.
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12:51How to figure where the need is for your productConduct interviews with customers to see where extra value can be added. Also, consider marketing the product generally at first to identify areas of organic usage of the product.
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15:24Deciding what market to go after firstMarketing sites and messaging can be changed over time. Its best not to over-specialize on the product side and figure out the other use cases as usage is observed.
Quotes
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"To some degree, DocSend still hasn't coined the term for the category we're in. Whether or not you need to do that depends on if you're going to enterprise or you're building for the end user." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"If you're buying Workday on behalf of your 10,000 employees, the individual employees aren't making the decision around that software. It's not built for the end user, it's built for the economic buyer." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"I interviewed 100s of our customers and came to the conclusion that the product is just generally useful. So, we changed up all of our marketing to speak to a bunch of different use cases." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"Airtable is absolutely a new category. What is that category? It doesn't matter. You just need to go on their website and figure out how you would integrate and use Airtable in your day to day work life." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"We built a partnership model where we'll give DocSend for 90% off to startups in incubators or through VCs." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"When you're starting a company, I've always had the philosophy that it doesn't need to be optimal, it just needs to be good enough." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"We were a little backwards in the sense that we launched a product first and saw where it stuck, and then decided from a marketing perspective to double down on those areas." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"When you're deciding what market to go after first, if you're in the seat as a founder or just running the marketing function for an earlier stage company, just getting from zero to one is really critical." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
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"You don't want to over-specialize what you're building for a small vertical. You can always update your marketing site over time, change the messaging, and you can change who you position it for." -Russ Heddleston, CEO, DocSend
- Part 1 Creating a new product category — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
- Part 2Why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
Up Next:
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Part 1Creating a new product category — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. When bringing a new product to market, it's easy for us to get caught up trying to make it the most optimal for a specific target audience. DocSend turned that concept on its head completely and launched the product first, then saw who was using it, and doubled down on their marketing efforts in those areas. Today, Russ discusses creating a new product category.
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Part 2Why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing — Russ Heddleston // DocSend at Dropbox
Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. There’s no denying that organic growth takes time to scale whether it's SEO or product-led growth. However, building in the sharing aspect into your product from the start sets you up for success and kick starts the growth of your organic growth channels. Today, Russ discusses why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing.
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