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Obtaining valuable customer feedback is a crucial step toward growth and success.
We just saw in our Minimum Viability Product (MVP) testing article how client interviews are almost essential for companies to test out their product/market fit.
In fact, before La Growth Machine (LGM) became what it is today, at its launch, we conducted a whopping 550 interviews. We had a poor conversion rate and we received conflicting feedback; our product was too complex by some and too simple by others.
These interviews were essential for gaining a better understanding and making necessary adjustments along the way.
In this article, we will share our insights on how to collect customer feedback effectively, and specifically, how to leverage LGM to optimize this process.
The Challenge: The Quest for Customer Feedback
Before diving into the incredible capabilities of La Growth Machine, let’s address the core issue – obtaining customer feedback effectively. Whether you’re launching a new product or fine-tuning your existing services, understanding your audience’s needs is paramount.
You must start with a simple question: How can we quickly and accurately gather feedback from our target audience?
The answer is clear: you need a tool that not only facilitates this process but also provides invaluable insights for our product development.
Enter La Growth Machine! With how versatile the tool is, no wonder it’s become the go-to solution for startups and small businesses alike.
Case Study 💼
- Problem:
GeneratedBy is a new company that basically helps you generate prompts for various generative AIs. Think of it as a bridge that connects various generative tools and helps you streamline your processes.
When they were in the early stages of development (MVP stage), they needed feedback from prompt engineers to make sure that their product was meeting their needs.
However, though this particular target represents a very new position in the job market, they still didn’t have the resources to manually reach out to 1500 leads.
- Solution:
This is where they decided to use La Growth Machine to automate their customer feedback collection process.
They created a sequence -which we will get more deeply into later- to reach out to their target audience on LinkedIn. The campaign consisted of a personalized message that invited prospects to sign up for a free trial of GeneratedBy.
- Results:
La Growth Machine helped GeneratedBy get valuable feedback from their target audience. The campaign generated over 1,000 leads, and Generated By was able to use this feedback to hone their product.
LGM later became the linchpin in their acquisition strategy. It’s also become the channel through which they get the best feedback, be it positive or negative.
How to automate your customer feedback collection?
Now, let’s delve into the campaign strategy used by GeneratedBy for gathering feedback and why La Growth Machine is pivotal in this process.
The process can be broken down into 3 phases:
- Manual prospecting.
- Automation.
- Zoom-in.
Phase 1 – Manual phase:
“We began with a manual phase, adhering to the principle that you should only automate something that you know works”.
It’s generally a good practice to automate processes that are already well-established and functioning correctly.
Expert Tip 🧠
This phase involved iterative efforts aimed at defining and engaging with various persona profiles. It encompassed the launch of a wide array of outreach campaigns, including cold emailing, social media outreach, and even experimentation with multi-channel campaigns.
The team measured results using relatively modest sample sizes, with each sample consisting of approximately 50 individuals per persona. This process yielded valuable insights and allowed them to significantly narrow down the target audience.
Ultimately, the company identified three different persona profiles, which they decided to later scale up using La Growth Machine.
At that time, the team consisted of three founders:
- One oversees the business aspect: They targeted the prompt engineers
- Another for the technical aspect of the business: Targeted the web developers
- The third member focuses on marketing: specifically targeting copywriters due to their positive response to testing efforts.
Phase 2 – Scaling the process thanks to LGM
Next, once they got a working process, it was time to shift and scale with La Growth Machine.
They began by crafting different sequences in terms of copywriting, which they A/B tested on relatively small sample sizes.
The team focused on measuring response rates and tracking daily sign-up numbers.
Since this type of outreach campaign was their primary strategy, they found it relatively easy to gauge its effectiveness.
The sequence itself is really simple, it’s only on LinkedIn:
- You start by visiting the lead’s profile: This will serve as a soft introduction.
Quick Tip 💡
Make sure your LinkedIn profile is properly optimized.
To be effective, your LinkedIn profile must be up-to-date and attractive:
- Make sure your profile photo is recent, cheerful, and professional. This is the image that defines you to your audience. It should give a glimpse of your personality and make people want to get in touch.
- Choose an explicit cover image. A visitor to your profile should be able to identify your field of expertise at a glance.
- Update your professional experience. As time goes by, add to your profile any new projects you’ve worked on and any new skills you’ve acquired.
- Ask for recommendations. They lend credence to your skills and are an excellent way of enhancing your credentials through the support of your peers.
- Next, you add them as a connection: Don’t forget to add a LinkedIn note to your connection request! Follow the link to know why. 😉In the note you’ll basically say something along the lines of:
Hi {{firstname}}, I’m also a prompt engineer. As such, I’ve developed the GeneratedBy tool which is revolutionizing prompt engineering. There is a free version available and I’d love to hear what you think of it.
Thanks in advance for your feedback, see you soon!
- Send a first intro message: You explain more in detail why you’ve reached out to them, what your product is, and how it might help them solve their pain point.
- Wait for an appropriate amount of time: Only you can determine; it depends on your audience, their level of activity on the platform, their line of work, etc.)
- Visit profile again: If they don’t reply, this serves as a soft reminder, they will receive a new notification and they will remember your message.
- Send one follow-up message: Depending on your audience and their behavior around the channel you chose to reach them on, send however many follow-ups you deem appropriate.
Example 🔍
As you’ll see in the first screenshot, this particular campaign has no follow-ups whatsoever.
This is because it is specifically targeting Prompt Engineers.
The expert judged that these people only needed to be sollicited twice (Note + 1st message), no more, no less.
And as you’ll see in the next screenshot, it worked pretty well!
Two things to note here:
- The team decided to adopt a LinkedIn-only approach because Prompt Engineers specifically have not yet been over-solicited on LinkedIn.
- This particular sequence and the screenshot of the results that will follow are from the US campaign, a target that’s much more in tune with Generative AI tools than the French community for instance.
Phase 3 – Zero in on the segment that worked best
In a subsequent stage, the team zeroes in on the target audience that yielded the most promising return on investment, namely, Prompt Engineers.
Expert Tip 🧠
With a retrospective look in mind, try to have a unique approach.
In this case, GeneratedBy’s uniqueness came from their use of LinkedIn to reach out to their target.
This, combined with their active presence on Twitter, Facebook Groups, etc. had them positioned as experts in their field and granted them a sort of authority within the new market.
Today, La Growth Machine achieves nearly a 50% acceptance rate on LinkedIn within this specific demographic, with an impressive 25% reply rate!
Expert Tip 🧠
It’s important to highlight that La Growth Machine is indeed a remarkable tool, offering valuable automated outreach capabilities. However, one must also factor in the time commitment that’s necessary to drive the deal home.
After the initial asking of customer feedback, you have to take 1-2 hours per day to accompany prospects, onboard them, answer their questions, etc.
In other words, you have to deal with this every day.
And that’s not a bad thing, yes, it means you’re never at a standstill. But you also have to understand the stakes at play.
And if you manage to get these leads to sign up, to give feedback, to do demos, it’d largely thanks to the huge amount of work you put into accompanying them.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, La Growth Machine is considered a game-changer for businesses that look to collect customer feedback. Not only in terms of gathering feedback but also in building a thriving community of users.
That said, sending feedback requests to your target audience on LinkedIn is far from being a hands-off process or the endpoint:
- You have to put in the effort in replying to those LinkedIn messages within 24 hours. This emphasizes that there’s a genuine human touch behind the automation.
- Your approach should revolve around encouraging users to sign up and provide feedback after trying the platform.
Expert Tip 🧠
This strategy has worked particularly well with prompt engineers for GeneratedBy.
If there’s interest or any questions, the founder personally takes over to provide a technical point of view.
They schedule a call or a meeting to engage with the lead, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, and introduce them to the platform if necessary.
For some, they even assist in crafting their prompts to showcase the tool’s value.
At the very beginning, within 4-5 months, the platform had around 700 sign-ups. Taking the time to engage personally with our users was incredibly beneficial. We invested that time. And, I can’t stress how crucial it is, you know. When I saw the benefits with the first ten people I guided through this – we’re talking about 10 individuals who gained a 30% boost in productivity in just one month of using these tools – I realized that scaling this approach was imperative.
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