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I spoke to more than 30
online business owners in
the past few years.

Here’s what i learned

1
Those who lost, start everything with
the product, not the audience.
Story of Sildenafil
Patented in 1996 to cure Two years later, went
hypertension & through another patent and
cardiovascular disease got rebranded as viagra
WHY?
But
because
For the majority of people

V
Find the right
audience for your
USE CASES
 People with
Solve the bigger problem ‘performance’
People with
problem visible
cardiovascular
issue
 Taking group selfie matters less now that
most front camera has wider lens

Nope :( Yes!
 Listerine has the same chemical as floor cleaner,
but they didn’t end up like the rest

Nope :( Yes!
2
Those who won, they know how to
invest in paid advertising.
Behold the
Law of Shitty
Click-through
By Andrew Chen
Guess the click-through rate
78% CTR
Debuted in 1994
 As technology grows, so does our
hatred toward being exposed to ads
Banner Blindness
People tend to avoid page elements
that they perceive to be ads.

Any blue banner against a

white background = ads
Tips on avoiding 💩CTR?
Do not make content look like ads.

Choose colors, type, background,

Call-to-Action and overall
content style carefully
 First to market never lasts

Anytime you made successful

new innovation, your competitor
will follow quickly. Always refresh
your approach.
Refresh your creatives

Every 1-1,5 months, refresh your

content. The more aggressive
your spending, the more you
want to take a look at the
content refreshment plan
3
Those who survived, know their
number down to the smallest details
THE BIGGEST THREAT
TO STARTUPS IS NOT
RECESSION.

IT’S RUNNING OUT OF CASH

 Burning “Oh no,
money to we’re
acquire running out
user of money”
Pressure
to hit the
target

“DAMN it’s
recession”

Layo
ffs “Hmm I
think
everyone is
doing
layoff”
HOW TO
AVOID THAT
TRAP?
Know your
Customer
Acquisition
Cost
Know your
Customer
Acquisition
Cost
Know your
Customer
Acquisition
Cost
The trick is to

Knowing when you should

stop incentivizing for
existing users
4
Those who persist, knows when to
be greedy
The rate in which customer acquisition cost is growing is very
alarming; hitting almost 10-20% in year-on-year basis
Meanwhile, every
company seeks to
reduce their acquisition
cost as time goes by…
Behold, the technology adoption lifecycle; a sociological model that explains
how people adopted a new solutions/technology

Technology Adoption Lifecycle

 People who bought iPhones People who bought iPhones People who bought iPhones
because they believe in their because their friends bought because Android sucks
innovation iPhones

Cheap to Expensive
acquire to acquire

Technology Adoption Lifecycle

The problem is that some people got too
greedy in acquiring & expanding the
product to these two segments while
forgetting their customer acquisition
cost
Solutions?
 Upsell Cross-Sell Offer cheaper alternative

Cheap to Expensive
acquire to acquire

Technology Adoption Lifecycle

It’s okay to be
greedy, as long
as you know
when to stop
5
Those who stayed, know how to
value their people
Why did VOC
Collapse?
But, what if you don’t have
enough budget to pay
people for full-time job?
Hire an
- If you require cross-industry
learnings
- If you want to experiment in more

Agency
channels
- If you want to invest more in
creative outputs variation
 Go For
- If you already know what channels
that you want to invest in
- If you require technical specialists

Freelancer
regularly
- If you already have a manager that
can supervise their operations
 But if you - Test their technical skills in
real-time
want to - Understand their decision-making
process

Hire - Give them a career ladder

Full-Timers
THANKS!
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