An Inside Look Into How ClickUp Went From $0-$20M ARR in Two Years
ClickUp has enjoyed remarkable success in the project management space – one of the most competitive software markets in the world. This analysis aims to share some of the key factors and strategies that allow ClickUp to continue to thrive in the red ocean and compete with project management household names like Asana, monday, Trello, etc.
Develop your MVP prototype
The prototype helps you picture how you expect people to use the features you just created. It is also what brings the MVP feature set to life and presents a way for people to test your product.
- Use a web app for the prototype before creating a mobile app shortly after.
Determine Your Target Customer
Find out who you want to serve with your product
Final thoughts
Find a product-market fit first
- Attract your first users through organic product-led content
- Listen to feedback from users to improve your product
- Ship new features as fast as you can
- You will start to see results in no time
Test your MVP with customers
How did ClickUp find its first customers?
Solving Audience Problems Through Product-led Content
A proven method to create content that quickly differentiates you from the competition and highlights your unique value to existing and potential customers
- Create content that addresses the pain points of an audience while showing how a product (typically your product) solves the audience’s problems
Finding Natural Product-Market Fit
A product can’t be created without testing if a market is willing to pay for it
Identify Customer Needs That Current Products Don’t Satisf satisfy
Uncover unmet or unsatisfied needs of your target customer
Specify your minimum viable product (MVP) feature set
Collect enough feedback from your target audience to understand your product’s strengths and weaknesses to improve it or double down on what works
- ClickUp’s MVP feature set included but was not limited to: Collaboration detection, Setting priority for tasks, Ability to assign and resolve comments, Organizing tasks through a board, list, or box view, Super rich editing
Building Competitor Comparison Pages
People want to know how ClickUp and other project management tools compare to each other.
- By producing these kinds of comparison pages, ClickUp has been able to rank for keywords like: ClickUp vs. Airtable, Asana vs. ClickUp, Monday vs. Notion Plutio alternative, and so many comparison-related others.
Driving Growth Through Paid Efforts and Social Media
ClickUp began to advertise on social media.
- Unlike most B2B brands, ClickUp’s ads don’t look like ads, they’re engaging
- They also use YouTube to reach people still at the awareness stage of their buyers’ journey.
How ClickUp Attracts Users Through Long-tail Keywords
Of the over 297K keywords ClickUp ranks for, a significant percentage comes from specific long-tail terms people are looking for.
- Aside from its articles, ClickUp also uses dedicated landing pages and templates to help its target audience understand the product’s functionality and eventually fall in love with it.
Using Feedback to Better Your Products
ClickUp goes to tremendous lengths to listen to their users
- Collect feedback with Canny
- Once they receive feedback, the ClickUp team gets to work to address the issues users raise
- Build trust with their users by listening to them and implementing their suggestions
First-Movers Advantage and Why You Should Ship as Fast as Possible
ClickUp covered a lot of ground when they first launched, and they continue to do so by shipping new features and fixing bugs as fast as they can
Define your value proposition
How do you make your audience see that you offer a new solution in the market?
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