The 4 Principles of Integration for Product-Driven Growth Platforms

The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.

As the Product Driven Growth (PLG) movement becomes more popular, the process will mature, as will the strategic customer acquisition process. The stages of customer acquisition become increasingly apparent in line with the flywheels of the PLG process and inbound marketing strategy.

The PLG flywheel has four stages; activate, adopt, adore and defend. The flywheel has three; attract, engage and delight. The more you learn, test, and iterate, the more you learn, test, and iterate for long-term success. Yet none of this reflects the principles of product-driven integration in my mind.

Related: How Customer Activation Drives Product-Driven Growth

Onboarding Steps for B2B Organizations PLG

To set the scene, onboarding doesn't start the moment someone signs a contract or inserts their credit card details. It's widely accepted that onboarding starts at the first point of contact in any channel your organization has. It could be an advertisement, a social media post, an event or a speculative email, for example, and each of them should set the tone or trend for the following activities and actions. So what are the four principles?

Onboarding marketing: making the unknown familiar

Platform onboarding: familiar to the freemium user

Value onboarding: freemium to paid user

Peer-Led Onboarding: Paid User Turned Product Champion

For each principle, there are corresponding tactics and strategies, some of which can be applied in silos, and others that work best when used in a cumulative or combined strategic approach. Let's discuss this in more detail.

Principles of Marketing Integration for PLG Companies

The very first stage of onboarding for product-focused companies is marketing. From there, there is a natural flow to bring the outsiders to the champions. But what does it look like and what is the best B2B SaaS-focused strategy? For me, that's the inbound marketing strategy, but let's look at some of the channels you can adopt:

Content Marketing

Paid Search

Paid social networks

Organic social networks

Email Marketing

Vlogging

Programmatic Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

You can dominate a single channel alone, but that may not prove beneficial for your longer-term goals. For many, content marketing is the price of admission to sitting down at the table, but for content to succeed in today's crowded online world, you need email marketing for it. support, paid advertising to promote it, and social media marketing (both organic and paid) to distribute it.

Therefore, a personalized multi-channel inbound marketing strategy is the only choice. Unless, of course, your PLG platform also sells to the business, and then you'll need an inbound and account-based marketing strategy for continued success. Beyond that, you need a solid messaging strategy on your website copy that will entice your new interested parties to start trying out your platform.

Related: Inbound Marketing – What It Is and Why It Matters

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