Notorious PLG 1.11.22 (Special Edition): The PLG Website

Weekly update email on the most important product-led growth ("PLG") companies and strategies

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The PLG Website

The best PLG founders think about the website as an extension of their product. The website is not only the first impression, but it is the gateway into the product. In evaluating thousands of PLG websites (I need a life), I wanted to share a list of what I think are best practices. For lack of a more creative acronym, I am calling my PLG website best practices: The C’s. For each C, I will provide my estimate for what % of the PLG websites I have studied meet this best practice (there is a lot of room for improvement!).

Concise

The best PLG websites articulate product value concisely. Researchers have found that our brains make a determination in ~3 seconds if we like something or not. If a website requires a new visitor to scroll down and search for clarifying information, the company has already lost. PLG websites that are concise: ~50%

Credibility

Once a user understands product value, they will need to understand if this company is credible. The most common way to demonstrate credibility is to provide logos of customers. Other ways to prove credibility are: customer testimonials, prominent press features, user love walls and a banner heading with a recent fundraising announcement. PLG websites that demonstrate credibility: ~75%.

Community

Emphasizing community is an emerging best practice and is often referred to as Community-Led Growth. Ways to do this are: forums, meetups, conferences and portals to showcase projects and plugins from the the community. Miro and Figma are my favorite case studies for community. PLG websites that highlight community: ~10%.

Collaboration

PLG companies should strive to go from single player mode to team mode as fast as possible. Teams are stickier and buy more over time. Directly showcasing sharing and team functionality on the homepage is important to educate and train users that the product delivers even more value in team mode. PLG websites that emphasize collaboration: ~75%.

Connectivity

It can be dauting to adopt a new application because it may not play nice with your existing toolset. Emphasizing integrations with the existing ecosystem can be critical to increasing user adoption and activation. Demonstrating connectivity with the modern tool stack also increases credibility. PLG websites that demonstrate ecosystem connectivity: ~33%.

Clarity

Pricing needs to be clear and transparent. Users need to understand how pricing scales with usage and team expansion. They don’t want to have to talk to a sales rep to understand pricing. Nothing can kill the product adoption journey like opaque pricing. PLG websites that demonstrate pricing clarity: ~90%.

Craftsmanship

This is the bonus wild card category. Craftsmanship is a hallmark of the most iconic PLG companies. Craftsmanship is a mix of design, aesthetics, ease-of-use, creativity, originality and attention to detail. Craftsmanship is hard to quantity, but you know it when you see it! PLG websites that demonstrate craftsmanship: ~25%.

Summary

Websites for PLG companies are super important! Many PLG companies have multiple teams that touch the website including acquisition, activation, engagement, growth, monetization and community teams. Not to mention dedicated website teams. There is so much room for improvement across The C’s (concise, credibility, community, collaboration, connectivity, clarity and craftsmanship) so please don’t let the website become a second class citizen. As always, I would love to hear your reactions and feedback so hit me up on Twitter @zacharydewitt.