The founder of Mogi I/O set out to launch a short-format video app — “a bit like TikTok, with a twist”. In the process, they built a strong tech stack for video streaming. The team even applied for a couple of patents for their video streaming software (Rahul Lahoria, the co-founder and CTO, is an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus) and quickly pivoted their business model. They became a B2B SaaS startup that supports video streaming and video delivery services.
But that isn’t what we are talking about today.
Instead, we are focusing on Mogi’s methodical approach to marketing a niche product, and the lessons it holds.
Swimming upstream
Over the years, marketing gurus have outlined a few fundamentals for marketing SaaS products. The conventional wisdom says that you need to first focus efforts on developing a high quality product, and then focus on amplifying your message.
But does this apply to you? When you have a niche product, when your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is up in the air, you haven’t figured out quite the right product-market fit or pricing strategy.
Here, you can start with narrowing down the variables. And there’s a logical process of getting there
To begin with, early-stage startups have to quickly arrive at a Product-Market fit and sound Go-To-Market strategy. They don’t always have the luxury of hypothesising or being too wide of the mark. The challenge is finding the right product-market fit and a dependable marketing strategy.
Founder’s perspective: As Vikrant Khanna, the CEO and co-founder of Mogi I/O says, there’s a sequential, logical way of figuring out what works for you.”It isn’t just about product-market fit… it’s the product – Ideal Customer Profile – pricing – market fit!”
Here’s how Mogi I/O built a marketing function for their niche B2B product with these steps.
No bad ideas. They tried all marketing channels — Blogs, all conceivable social media channels, traditional PR, to see what got them traction.
The single line mantra — find out where RoI is best, and sales cycle is the shortest.
Mogi I/O was focusing on enterprise sales, but the sales cycle was too long — that’s when the shift to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) unlocked a new ICP and revenue sources. And every new ICP requires a separate marketing strategy.
Here, conventional wisdom says that LinkedIn is the ideal channel for most B2B startups. But when it came to SMBs, Mogi I/O found that LinkedIn generated qualified leads, but they weren’t closing as many sales. The team had a better RoI on Facebook and Instagram. One hypothesis was that the potential customers on Instagram were still exploring, and were far more likely to give their platform a try.
Tracking results, daily. Tracking results each day allowed the Mogi I/O team to experiment quickly and efficiently. It allowed them to figure out if the problem was the proposition or the channel. It also kept them from marrying an idea. They let data guide their decisions, quickly changing tack as the situation demanded.
When there were mixed signals, the campaign or idea was given a little more time.
The challenge with moving so rapidly is the pressure to generate new ideas. Consistent conversations with clients generated some excellent ideas that they put into action.
Mogi’s founders used their customer insights to launch new marketing campaigns, fine-tune their pricing strategy, and come up with new channels for generating leads.
Founder’s perspective: “Personally speaking, I believe in speaking to customers. If you speak to five customers on a daily basis, the best ideas come from there.”
An amalgam of inside sales & social selling
There’s enough written about how the inside sales model is dead, but Mogi I/O modified the system to set up social selling, reaching out to leads via one-on-one messages or calls through Vikrant. This is another innovation that came from first principles thinking. Where inside sales was calling and mailing, now it’s been modified to send one-on-one messages on social media platforms, keeping up with modern times.
By systematically setting up a marketing process, Mogi I/O has figured out how to leverage their funds for maximum RoI, setting up marketing channels or strategies that work for them. Their story has some fundamental lessons we can learn from!
Visit Mogi I/O‘s website to know more about their services.
