The Magic of Building a Product-Led Innovation Brand /w Peter Drole, BirdBuddy

BirdBuddy is a smart bird feeder that took the internet by storm and did almost $10M on Kickstarter and Indiegogo ... before even launching a product.

Today, when they have product on stock, they sell out almost immediately. And they're backed by a passionate community that's integral to their brand building. Their community loves them so much that a 3rd-party aftermarket for 3D printed add on parts sprouted up by itself on Etsy. 35% of their customers say they bought them because of a customer referral ... and they don't even have a referral program in place, yet.

What's the secret sauce?

1) Start with an innovative (magical!) product with built-in emotional triggers in a super passionate community. Build on that passion by adding a utility/engagement mobile app that's core to the product experience and gamifies it.

2) With a product with built-in emotional triggers, producing ad creative that converts becomes super easy. Just demonstrate the product in real life :)

3) Proactively build an online customer community. Obsess about customer support, turning your customers into your biggest advocates. Ask your community for input on building out your product and portfolio ... and then actually listen to them.

4) Increase your AOV and repeat purchases by doing smart product R&D, and not just focusing on marketing tricks.

5) Don't fall asleep with your acquisition products. Great product R&D delivers new products you can use to boost new customer acquisition.

Other Topics Covered

• Fighting (or not!) copycats on Amazon
• Acquisition channel balancing, blended ROAS and channel interactions
• Customer acquisition when you're out of stock
• And more

Some Key Lessons

• Understand acquisition channel interactions (what's driving what, for example Facebook driving Google search)
• Balance channels with adjusted ROAS targets, based on the role of each channel (Facebook driving demand, Google picking up demand)
• Make big picture budget decisions based on blended performance metrics, not single channel metrics
• Adjust budgets based on seasonality, stock levels etc.

Watch the full interview here: