Good reads #66- 21st July 2023
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the 66th edition of the good reads newsletter by Malpani Ventures. Sharing your weekly dose of articles for this weekend’s reading from Bangalore where the team is attending SAASCON 23!
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Twitter’s Open Source Algorithm: What B2B Marketers Should Know
https://foundationinc.co/lab/twitters-open-source-algorithm
Twitter is a key channel to build a B2B company’s presence. Here are some important things B2B founders & marketers using Twitter should know about its algorithm:
Leverage In-Network and Out-of-Network Sources: Twitter's recommendation algorithm relies on both In-Network and Out-of-Network sources to suggest tweets. As a marketer, focus on cultivating your audience within someone's network and target niche audiences to appear in embedding spaces.
Engage in Meaningful Conversations: Meaningful engagement with others through likes, retweets, and replies significantly boosts tweet visibility. Encourage conversations and create content that drives replies to enhance social media optimization.
Diversify Your Content: Creating various types of content on different themes increases engagement with your audience. Mix jokes, informative threads, and other topics to reach a wider range of people and increase visibility.
Stay Relevant to Trending Topics: Twitter's algorithm values tweets related to trending topics. Keep up with current events and engage in conversations your audience is having to remain relevant and boost visibility.
Mind Your Reputation Score: Twitter assigns a reputation score based on user behavior. Avoid engaging in controversial topics or using abusive language to maintain a positive reputation.
Utilize Visual Media: Incorporating visual media in tweets significantly enhances visibility. Use photos, graphs, infographics, or videos to engage with your audience and increase tweet reach.
Be Strategic with External Links: Twitter deprioritizes tweets with external links, aiming to keep users on-site. Use links intelligently, such as including them in replies or directing users to your homepage in your bio.
Focus on In-Niche Topics: Twitter ranks tweets higher when they are specific to in-niche topics that interest its users. Tailor your content to address subjects that your target audience cares about.
By grasping these insights and optimizing your Twitter presence accordingly, you can enhance your startup's visibility, engage with your audience effectively, and drive your social media strategy to success. Remember, consistency, relevance, and meaningful interactions are key to standing out in the competitive social media landscape.
Building customer personas
https://www.malpaniventures.com/blog-post/building-customer-personas
This week we talked about the power of customer personas in the enterprise software space. These profiles can unlock valuable insights, drive product development, and supercharge your marketing strategies.
Here's a step-by-step guide to developing accurate customer personas for your enterprise software startup:
Know Your Target Audience: Start by identifying your target customers. Consider factors like industry, company size, job roles, and location. For example, if your software caters to HR departments in mid-sized tech companies in North America, that's your target audience.
Conduct Market Research: Gather data and insights to understand your target audience better. Use surveys, interviews, and industry reports to learn about their pain points, goals, and preferences.
Segment Your Audience: Divide your target audience into meaningful segments based on shared characteristics. You can create segments like "HR professionals in tech companies" or "CFOs in manufacturing firms."
Create Customer Personas: Develop detailed profiles for each segment, known as customer personas. These personas should include demographics, job-related information, goals, pain points, preferences, and quotes or anecdotes from your research.
Give Each Persona a Name: Make the personas more relatable and memorable by assigning them names like "Tech-Savvy Tom" or "Data-Driven Dominic."
Utilize the Personas: Incorporate the personas into your marketing and product development strategies. Tailor your messaging, content, and features to meet the specific needs and preferences of each persona.
By creating and leveraging customer personas, you'll be better equipped to connect with your target customers, develop products they truly need, and build successful marketing campaigns. Good luck on your journey, and keep learning and evolving!
So, You Want to Find PMF in the US?
https://blume.vc/commentaries/so-you-want-to-find-pmf-in-the-us
Blume dropped on a note on finding PMF in the US - the biggest market for software in the world. Naturally, we take note. Sharing learnings:
Evaluate Your First Market: Decide whether India or the U.S. should be your first target market. While the U.S. offers significant rewards, it comes with risks, especially for B2B SaaS companies. Consider your starting point, product-market fit, and resources before making the decision.
Understand the Risks of U.S. Market Entry: Entering the U.S. as your first market requires a focused product-market fit process tailored to the U.S. audience, which may take time and resources. Moreover, competing with local U.S. startups can be challenging. Engaging with customers and iterating the product in the U.S. market from India can be logistically difficult.
Assess U.S. Market Entry Timing: If you possess an unfair advantage in understanding the U.S. market, have deep insights into U.S. buyers and users, or can find the right design partners in the U.S., then consider entering the U.S. first. However, ensure your value hypothesis directly aligns with the needs of U.S. businesses from the outset.
Avoid Simultaneously Targeting India and the U.S.: Focusing on both markets simultaneously can be detrimental to your startup's success. Finding product-market fit in two different markets at the same time is akin to running two startups and significantly increases the chances of failure.
Follow a Structured Framework for U.S. Market Entry: If you have found success or are close to product-market fit in India, consider a structured approach for U.S. market entry. Steps include auditing your India product-market fit, developing a U.S. fitness hypothesis, setting up a U.S. PMF fund & team, validating your U.S. company story, building a U.S. GTM strategy, and iterating for U.S. PMF.
By understanding these key insights, startup founders in India can make informed decisions about their target market, reduce the risk of market entry, and increase their chances of successful expansion into the U.S. market. Remember that a focused and well-thought-out approach is crucial for long-term growth and sustainability.