Dropbox has grown to 100 million users in just 5 years i.e. adding around 54794 users per day. Isn’t it impressive? I am sure it is.
However, one must also keep in mind that they didn’t spend any money on advertising and on getting a fancy website. Their website was one of the simplest websites with two main components, an explainer video and an application download button. Also, one more thing which we need to keep in mind is that the product they were offering was not unique as there were multiple competitors in the market.
So, what is Dropbox’s biggest growth hack?
The answer is an Explainer Video:
The explainer video is simple and easy to understand. All the users who visited their website just saw the explainer video and understood its benefits and signed up in minutes. There were fewer details which didn’t distract the users and the explainer video was self explanatory. Users who landed on the website had a single and effective means of communication which was an important parameter for its success.
Some Money was burnt!
Dropbox did start with spending money on Google Adwords with an average cost of acquisition of $388 which was far more expensive than the product cost of $99. They decided to stop this campaign as it made the business impossible to sustain.
Thus, they decided to focus on using their existing customers and run a referral campaign as it was an easy source of client acquisition. To lure the customers, it offered extra space for users whose invites were accepted and a new user was registered. This campaign was quite useful as customers not only got their friends registered but also shared their wonderful experience about the product. It has been estimated that a total of 2.8 million invites were sent in a month. This was one of the driving forces for its success.
How a simple design and an explainer video helped Dropbox grow even more?
Whoever visited the home page paid 100% attention to their explainer video. Dropbox’s Team has made a conscious effort for users to know the benefits of their products in minutes and explainer video was the way out they figured. By giving undivided attention to the explainer video people understood its benefits and signed up in minutes and also recommended the same to their loved ones. Some people also shared the video which also helped to grow organically as people directly went to sign up just after watching the video.
So, why are Explainer Videos worth the investment?
Dropbox did a comprehensive research and found that their conversion rate increased by 10% by adding an explainer video on their homepage. This 10% meant an additional 10 million customers and an $84,000,000 of revenue. The cost of the video was hardly $50,000. So it was worth an investment which yielded results near 1680 times.
Please Note: This is just a simple case study which highlights the importance of videos; in fact researchers have estimated product videos increase the likelihood of a purchase by 85%. So, if you are struggling to get one, just write to us and we will do the rest.
