BSSA #57 - Build A Successful Shopify App 🚀

Hey founders! Sorry, I’m sending this email late! It was supposed to be on Tuesday but yesterday I was sick and couldn’t write it!

So I’m sending it today! 😁

Do you know the concept of “shiny object”?

It’s when you’re constantly moving from one business or project to another. This usually happens because we think the new idea we just got is better than the previous one.

There is a similar concept with customers. The shiny customers.

As SaaS founders we want new customers so we’ll try different things to attract new people:

• We build features we think new users want

• We constantly try to get new acquisition channels

But this is not how it works.

You get more users by pleasing the ones you already have!

Think about that, you have some users that like your product.

You already get them, they already use your product, and they are probably already paying.

So why don’t you focus on them instead of trying to get new people?

You know these people already need your product. So what do you do?

You please them even more! Because if you create more things they love, you’ll attract more people like them!

So here is the framework.

Step 1: Conduct customers calls

The first step is to get calls with your customers so you can hear from them. But the most complicated part is to get them on call.

Here is how we do it.

→ Add a tool like Crisp to get a live chat

→ Connect a webhook to Slack so you receive a notification whenever someone opens your app dashboard

→ Add some filter to ensure you receive a notification only for people that are with you for months

→ You can then send them a message directly on the live chat right when they are on the app. This is the best time to catch them.

And then you can say something like: Hey, I noticed you’ve been with us for X months, thank you for that, is there anything I can help you with?

The goal here is just to get them to reply.

Then as soon as they did it, you can ask them to jump on a quick 10 min call where the goal is to get their feedback to improve the app even more!

They won’t all accept, but it's enough as soon as you can get a few calls.

During that call your goal is to understand:

• Why do they use your app?

• What makes your app perfect for them?

• What would they change if they had a magic wand?

Get feedback and fix what they don’t like and improve what they love.

Step 2: Create cohorts

Cohorts are groups of people. As I told you, you want to please your best customers.

So create groups based on attributes (like the type of stores) and then look at the churn.

You want to find the groups where the churn is lower so you can focus on them.

Now this is your ideal customer. Do everything you can to get more of them!

Step 3: Collect attributes

You need to get data about your users. You can push the data to Mixpanel to understand:

• What are they selling?

• What is the size of their team?

• How did they know about your app?

• On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do they need your app?

These are some examples you can use!

And remember, focus on your current users, not new ones!

That’s it for today’s email!

I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to share my newsletter with someone else: https://news.matdesousa.com/

And let me know what you want me to talk about in the next email!

See you next week,

Mat 😁