When is “lean” limiting your startup’s shot at success?
I recently spoke with a prospective client who reached out about a new fintech startup he was working on. He hired front-end and back-end development teams for build, but was struggling with the customer facing sales site. After getting into the process, he realized the site was lacking a focused positioning and tone of voice. Not to mention having some other design and branding issues. He was at that stage where you begin to think…
“In the effort to be lean, am I spending just enough to fail?”¹
His gut was telling him that his product needed more work on the communication and design experience. But the startup world was telling him don’t waste money on it. He mentioned a particular case study I had on the Works Progress site for LeafLink.com. It read…
“Like most successful start-ups, LeafLink got off the ground with a solid product but little focus on branding. That’s not a criticism; it’s a smart start. With Lerer Hippeau’s investment, they were ready for the next step.”
He wanted to know whether I thought it was always a smart way to start, or if there were exceptions and what they might be. I figured he might not be the only one, so here we go….
5 instances when your baby needs a little branding love before launch.
1. When people will have trouble understanding what you do/offer
In your casual conversations about your product, do you find yourself struggling to succinctly sum up what it does? Do you feel like you have to follow up with further info that speaks to the features and benefits before the other person finally says, “Oh, yeah that’s cool”?
If so, you’re having positioning challenges. If you can’t state quickly and clearly what you offer in one sentence without having to expound, they won’t understand it when you’re not there to explain it. By having your messaging and design aligned to support understanding you’re less likely to lose their attention and more likely to inspire sign-ups.
2. When people are having trouble understanding why it should matter
When talking about your product, do you find yourself having to connect the dots for people? If so, a stronger foundation for messaging and design could be in order. Just because people understand the basics of what you do, doesn’t mean they understand why they should care. It’s not always obvious. A stronger design and messaging experience can help show you understand your customer’s struggles. And it can also show them the vision of success your product delivers.
I can tell you first hand how much this matters. My company, Works Progress, is a branding and design consultancy for SaaS and Fintech. But let’s face it, y’all have spent years hearing that you shouldn’t invest in branding until you’ve perfected your product. Not realizing that half the problem with understanding or engagement of the product is probably associated with poor branding. And no, I’m not talking about logo design.
It wasn’t until I began speaking to the root of the struggle — having no foundation for sales and marketing (i.e. what branding actually is) — that they began seeing me as a solution to their problems. Their struggles didn’t change. My services didn’t change. But how I spoke about them did. I used messaging and design to help my audience connect the dots in language that made more sense to them.
3. When your product is new to the world
When Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen were building their new crypto venture, Clovyr, they recognized that this was not your typical startup. There was nothing else out there that bridged the gap between public and private blockchain. Or provided the much needed middle layer between developers and the platforms. They had a big vision for what the framework could be. But they also recognized that referring to it as, “a development framework and app marketplace for the Ethereum blockchain that extends financial services to connect the developed and developing world in new ways,” didn’t quite roll off the tongue.
They also wanted to make it clear to people at a glance, that Clovyr wasn’t your typical blockchain startup and wanted to avoid crypto clichés. By using messaging and design as a tool to support clearer communication for both understanding and for differentiation, they were able to come to market and make big waves.
4. When your product is proven elsewhere, but new to your market
If you’re launching a proven model in a new market — say a country that hasn’t made the leap to fintech, insuretech, etc. — you can’t wholly rely on those existing examples. There’s an education and trust factor to overcome. You kind of have to pretend these concepts don’t previously exist. Because to your audience, they don’t.
If you want a better reference, spend some time on the Way Back Machine and look at how those products were first introduced to the market. You’ll see how their communication has changed now that the education process is further along. Take the time to focus on your message so your people don’t drop off when they fear it or don’t get it.
5. You’re entering a crowded space
Despite being the opposite scenario to number 4, the recommendation is still the same, but for different reasons. When entering a market where the audience is quite familiar with the “new way of doing things,” branding becomes even more important. It helps people see at a glance that you are offering something different or better than your competitors. How you look and how you speak about the product becomes crucial for understanding the subtle — or not so subtle — differences.
I recently spoke with a prospective client who was working on a service related to investing. His offering was incredibly different than other investment-related services, yet his test site looked exactly like them. His rationale was that these companies were having success with this style/model and he figured he would, too. When I asked how they would know he was offering something dramatically different, he suddenly realized there was a flaw with the plan. You can’t demonstrate difference, if you look and act the same.
So what was it that made LeafLink different than these scenarios?
With LeafLink, they had a B2B service that was easily understood. The basis of it — a CRM and marketplace — were existing concepts that any business owner understands. The main difference LeafLink offered was focusing on a niche audience — marijuana brands and the dispensaries that sell them. So, because LeafLink had…
1. a clear audience defined
2. an easy to understand product that required little to no education and
3. very few competitors
branding wasn’t a huge value-add. As the space got more crowded, as they wanted to create more differentiation, as they wanted to be more of a community for their customers not just a CRM/marketplace, branding and communication became more crucial.
The key to knowing whether you need to make the investment early on is to be objective and honest with yourself about how you’re communicating your offering. Tap into that empathy gene and look at things from the perspective of your prospective customer. Try to put aside what you think should be obvious to them. Always assume it’s not.
If you’re interested in creating a stronger foundation for your sales and marketing, let’s talk. ;-)
¹Thanks to my dear colleague, Carol Norris of go2brite.com for that perfectly accurate expression.
