00:00in this video I'm going to show you my
00:01step-by-step plan to 83k mrr for my
00:04startup exploding topics so to give you
00:07some background exploding topics is a
00:08trend spawning platform used by
00:10companies large and small and everywhere
00:12in between and we're already on track to
00:1483k mrr but in this video I'm going to
00:17go over the exact step-by-step blueprint
00:18that we're going to use to get there
00:20even faster to basically accelerate our
00:22results so when I say we're on track to
00:23do it what do I mean well first of all
00:25we're close to that number already the
00:26stuff we're doing is generally working
00:28like we get 400 000 visitors a month to
00:30the site we're getting 500 trials we're
00:32converting trials at a higher level
00:33churn is going down LTV is going up all
00:36that good stuff but like most
00:37entrepreneurs I'm impatient so I want to
00:39get there even faster I basically have a
00:41plan to help us get there faster besides
00:43just doubling down on what works and
00:44doing what we're already doing so to
00:46give you some context about what we're
00:47already doing that's made the biggest
00:49difference for us the number one thing
00:50has been the newsletter so every week we
00:53send out a newsletter called
00:54explodingtopics Tuesday and we have
00:56about 90 000 subscribers on that
00:58newsletter with a 50 open rate which I
01:00think is really good now that newsletter
01:02in terms of like conversions that day we
01:04send it out hours after we send it out
01:06is not anything special but the power of
01:08the newsletter is that it's like free
01:09retargeting we're reminding people every
01:12single week that we exist we're also
01:13building the email list and getting
01:15people into the habit of opening our
01:16emails so when we do run a promo like a
01:18product launch we have 90 000 people
01:20that are ready to open our emails and
01:22convert so launches are one of the
01:24reasons that we're able to grow so
01:26quickly in fact looking back I would say
01:27email based launches to this newsletter
01:29list is responsible for like 25 to 30
01:32percent of our MRI just that alone
01:34another thing that's working really well
01:35for us is organic traffic and SEO so our
01:38traffic is about 400 000 visitors a
01:40month most of which is Google organic
01:42and it's growing fast so we've been able
01:44to go from literally zero to four
01:45hundred thousand visitors a month in
01:47like two years the reason for that is
01:49because we've really focused on SEO
01:50content marketing link building all that
01:52stuff that I basically did for backlinko
01:54my last company we did for exploring
01:55topics and it worked even better because
01:57it's a much less competitive space the
01:59third thing that's really made huge
02:00difference for us is lowering our churn
02:02so churn was a huge problem for us for a
02:04while it was like 10 some months and now
02:07it's tracking below three percent so
02:09obviously you can never get low enough
02:10and I'm gonna go over strategies we're
02:12going to use to lower that even more but
02:14that made a huge difference for us
02:15because we were basically growing really
02:17quickly and we basically hit a brick
02:18wall because of churn and we did some
02:20things I have a whole video about how we
02:22reduced our churn we improved the
02:23product more or less and that helped get
02:25our churn down from almost 10 on certain
02:27months to below three percent if we just
02:29sort of just kept things going like they
02:31are like just making product
02:33improvements like we're doing now you
02:34know improving our onboarding getting
02:36more organic traffic publishing more
02:37content maybe adding a new channel we'd
02:40hit that pretty soon but I want to hit
02:41it sooner and get past that I want to
02:43hit 83 but not just hit it like hit it
02:45and then get to the next level even
02:47faster so why 83 kmr what's Magic about
02:50that number well it's one million
02:52dollars AR right so Dr Evil style that's
02:54what we want to do and that's sort of
02:56the next Milestone that I want to hit
02:57with the business so the first thing
02:59that we're are going to do to accelerate
03:01our process of getting to 83k mrr is
03:04more bottom of the funnel content so
03:06right now when I talk about hitting 400
03:08000 visitors a month yeah that sounds
03:10great and it is a huge number I'm
03:11actually surprised myself that we hit
03:13that number so quickly but it's mostly
03:16middle and top of the funnel traffic
03:18which is fine like how that works is
03:20people are on top of the funnel they
03:22sign up for your newsletter and then
03:23months or years later they'll sign up
03:25there's nothing wrong with that that's
03:26the strategy we basically use to get to
03:28this point which is on the cusp of 83k
03:30mrr but what we haven't really done a
03:32lot of is this bottom of the funnel
03:33concept so to give you some behind the
03:35scenes numbers the site gets about 6 000
03:37newsletter subscribers per month 500 to
03:39600 trials per month we recently went
03:41from like 300 000 to 400 000 visitors a
03:43month which sounds great but it didn't
03:45really make a huge difference in terms
03:46of the number of Trials or customers
03:47that we got that's most companies you'll
03:49hit a level of diminishing returns when
03:52you start to get these big traffic
03:53numbers those increases in traffic
03:55numbers won't make as big of a
03:57difference as you think in other words
03:58going from like 10 000 to 50 000 off to
04:01make a huge difference in the number of
04:02Trials and customers that you get but
04:04going for 300 350 won't make as much of
04:06a difference when we went from 350 000
04:09to 400 000 it did make a difference
04:10because that traffic was made up a
04:12bottom of the funnel traffic so instead
04:14of top of the funnel traffic really
04:15focused on people that were more or less
04:17ready to buy or ready to sign up or just
04:19being really close to being interested
04:21in signing up so let me show you what I
04:23mean with an example so most of the
04:24content that we published up to this
04:25point were super top of the funnel stuff
04:27like business Trends right we have a
04:29list of business Trends someone
04:30searching for business Trends and they
04:31find us which they're in our market
04:33right we sell Trends basically via our
04:35Trends platform and someone's searching
04:37for Trends in business Trends in
04:38e-commerce Trends consumer Trends
04:40whatever it's basically top slash middle
04:42of the funnel content doesn't convert
04:44great but gets a lot of volume of people
04:45to your site and a certain percentage
04:47convert contrast that with our bottom of
04:49the funnel stuff that we've been
04:50publishing lately like this post has
04:52done really well for us which is Google
04:53Trends Alternatives they're literally
04:55looking for alternatives to Google
04:56Trends which we are in a way so that
04:58person is much more likely to invert now
05:00the amount of traffic that we're getting
05:01from this bottom of the funnel is still
05:03pretty low but it's really impactful and
05:05we have only scratched the surface with
05:07it like there's still massive potential
05:09to publish more of this bottom of the
05:10funnel content produce better bottom of
05:12the funnel content I'm still kind of
05:14learning how to write it how to produce
05:15it at a high level and make it really
05:17valuable yet also sell really just
05:19scratch the surface but I've seen a lot
05:20of potential there so I have a feeling
05:21that's going to be one of the ways we're
05:23able to jump start is not just going
05:25from 400 000 to 500 000 to 600 000 which
05:28I'm tempted to do because I'm an SEO
05:30nerd right like I just want to get more
05:31traffic but really taking off my SEO hat
05:33and looking at more of a CEO hat and
05:35saying okay going for 400 000 to 500 000
05:38visitors are nice it's going to increase
05:39our trials and increase the MRI and all
05:41that stuff but isn't it better to have
05:4210 000 people that are just like really
05:45close to buying that's really what we're
05:46focusing on now so to summarize like we
05:48get a lot of traffic and a lot of its
05:50quality traffic it's not junk but it's
05:51not like super Primo traffic at this
05:54point and that's really the focus now so
05:55instead of getting you know it's 800 000
05:57visitors or a million or whatever I'm
05:59really just focused on this bottom of
06:00the funnel traffic for now and learning
06:02how to do that right The Next Step we're
06:03going to take to grow even faster is
06:05Enterprise sales so if you look at figma
06:08before they sold to Adobe you can see
06:10their growth chart over time and it's
06:12basically almost flat at first even
06:15though they're growing and then there's
06:16like this hockey stick inflection point
06:18where it's almost vertical and this is
06:20where they start at Enterprise sales now
06:22I don't think we're at the point yet
06:23where we'll have like just book a demo
06:25which everyone hates whether pricing is
06:27hidden I might never want to do that but
06:29we're really only scratch the surface
06:30with Enterprise sales too we recently
06:32closed our first Fortune 500 Enterprise
06:33customer and learned a lot along the way
06:35like we had no idea what we're doing in
06:37terms of pricing in terms of contracts
06:40in terms of sales like it was just me
06:42and my co-founder sort of figuring it
06:43out as we went along and we still were
06:45able to close this Fortune 500 customer
06:47as an Enterprise client and we realized
06:49how huge it is yes it's a pain in terms
06:52of like paperwork as opposed to just
06:53getting someone to just sign up with a
06:55credit card and they automatically
06:56convert but it increased their MRI by
06:58like a couple percent just like that
07:00with one customer and I think if we're
07:01able to scale that even a little bit get
07:03one or two of these Enterprise customers
07:05a month it can make a huge difference in
07:06our growth the only challenge is I'm
07:08realizing you need a true infrastructure
07:10to do Enterprise sales properly like we
07:12have no problem with the lead part like
07:14I mentioned earlier we're getting a lot
07:15of Trials every month and some of those
07:17would be perfect Enterprise customers if
07:19we had a pipeline ready to go there's so
07:21much follow-up and meetings and calls
07:24and demos and paperwork and pricing I
07:27was happy to do it for this Fortune 500
07:28client because you're not just going to
07:30turn someone like that away but if we
07:31really want to scale this process up and
07:33have like a proper Enterprise plan
07:35account managers and all that stuff I
07:37realize that's a whole it's almost a
07:39whole other business model yeah it took
07:40a little bit more effort to close this
07:42Fortune 500 Enterprise client but it
07:45increased our MRI by a couple percent
07:46just like that and there's basically
07:48zero percent churn because we signed a
07:49three year contract it's totally
07:51different than someone that's like month
07:52to month on your lowest plan it's easier
07:54to get that person obviously but they're
07:56much more likely to churn the LTV is
07:58going to be like 1 50th of the
07:59Enterprise customer so this is something
08:01that I'm sort of still on the fence on
08:03in terms of moving forward because I
08:04really just wanted to focus on the
08:06product which I'll talk about in a
08:07minute it's something that we'll
08:08experiment with now learn and then when
08:10we hit 83k Mr turn on Enterprise and get
08:13to 2 million a lot faster the next thing
08:14that's going to be huge for us is
08:15expansion Revenue this is something we
08:17really only experimented with lately so
08:19to give me some context when we started
08:21exploring Topics in terms of monetizing
08:23it it was a paid newsletter we
08:25eventually pivoted to SAS and because of
08:27that we didn't really think a lot about
08:28expansion Revenue because within paid
08:30newsletter it's like use the free
08:31newsletter or you pay there was no
08:33feature gating or anything that you
08:34could really do on a paid newsletter now
08:36that we have a proper SAS platform we're
08:38looking into ways to get expansion
08:39Revenue because we do have higher plans
08:41that are better the higher plans have
08:43more seats more features better service
08:45all that good stuff and we're trying to
08:47still figure out how to get people in
08:49app to upgrade we have actually quite a
08:51few people that sign up for the higher
08:53plans initially which is great but we're
08:55not really doing a good job at getting
08:56people on the lower plans to upgrade one
08:58of the ways we're going to do it is
08:59obviously feature getting where you log
09:01in and there's a feature that's there
09:03and then when you click on it is a call
09:04to action to upgrade or at least try and
09:06upgrade with Enterprise it's another
09:07good thing about Enterprise is they're
09:08always adding more seats if you're doing
09:10a good job serving them and that's
09:11expansion Revenue sort of automatically
09:13because no one needs to upgrade so this
09:15is something we're sort of experimenting
09:16with I just see huge potential there
09:17because we're not doing anything with it
09:19right like people do upgrade but they
09:20have to basically email us to upgrade
09:22that's how early on we are with the
09:23whole process that we don't even have a
09:25way for someone in app really to upgrade
09:27and that's something I want to really
09:28focus on in the future because just a
09:29no-brainer people don't upgrade that's
09:31fine but they at least have the option
09:32and there isn't a huge amount of
09:34friction like there is now next thing I
09:36think will be huge for us is having an
09:37affiliate program we get emails
09:39literally every week or every two weeks
09:41from someone saying do you have an
09:42affiliate program because exploding
09:44topics is sort of a unique SAS product
09:46that's really it's an easy sell like
09:47we've never really had a huge problem
09:49converting visitors to trials and
09:51visitors into customers because it's a
09:53unique product that solves a real
09:54problem so if you have an audience and
09:57you're sick of pitching the same stuff
09:58this can be some something new to sell
10:00to your audience and it converts really
10:01well the problem is setting up an
10:03affiliate program in theory sounds easy
10:05but in practice it's kind of tricky for
10:08example like you just okay I'm gonna
10:09create an affiliate program here's some
10:11affiliate links well it's not that easy
10:12because you want to vet people that are
10:14going to promote your product right you
10:15want to make sure they have an audience
10:16you want to make sure they're not
10:17running ads on your brand name that
10:19stuff's not like rocket science and it's
10:21not hard but it takes Focus away from
10:23creating a great product which is our
10:24Focus now and the marketing stuff that I
10:26already mentioned last and more
10:28importantly is lowering churns so as I
10:30outlined in another video we're able to
10:32lower a churn from like 10 which is just
10:34killing us to below three percent and I
10:36think to really hit this inflection
10:38point where we're just growing growing
10:40growing we'll need to have churn below
10:42two and a half two percent or so last
10:43month we grew by 10 we did have more you
10:46know new Mr coming in but the real
10:48Difference Maker was lowering churn
10:49we're really focusing on building new
10:51dedicated features that people can use
10:53and get value from right away so to give
10:55an example when we launched two features
10:57trending startups and trending products
10:59that's the the main thing that Lord our
11:00churn from almost 10 to below three
11:02percent because those people that were
11:04logging in and wanting to find that
11:06stuff they didn't have to work at it
11:07they didn't have to work to get value
11:08they just clicked a button and they got
11:10value if you sell on Amazon and you're
11:12looking for like the next big thing to
11:13sell you click a button and you get
11:14thousands of trending products if you're
11:16an investor and you want to know
11:17startups that are growing in the health
11:19space that have raises series a boom you
11:21can click a button and get it before you
11:22had to really work for it and people
11:24just aren't willing to do that which
11:25makes sense so they churn they say I'm
11:27not using it it's too hard and they
11:28churned now they can click a button and
11:29get value and that's kind of our goal is
11:31that someone can just log in Click a
11:33button get value they're much less
11:34likely to churn if they can do that so
11:36yeah like I said we're well on our way
11:38to 83k mrr and maybe actually by the
11:40time this video comes out we'll be there
11:41but I just wanted to lay out for you
11:43some strategies and techniques that I'm
11:46looking to use and test out and scale up
11:48to help us grow even faster and I
11:50thought it'd be interesting to share
11:51this sort of as I'm doing it as opposed
11:53to after the fact so you could be on the
11:55journey with me as I'm figuring this
11:56stuff out so yeah that's about it now
11:58I'd like to hear from you are you
11:59scoring a SAS startup or a subscription
12:01business I'd love to hear what you're
12:02doing to scale up and to grow so leave a
12:04comment in the comment section below and
12:06I'll see you in the next video
