As with other disruptive innovations, Framebridge has opened up its industry to more potential customers, many of whom would never have thought to custom frame before Framebridge. For Tessa Wolf, head of merchandizing, creative, and brand, this means there is significant opportunity sheerly through increasing brand awareness. However, it can be difficult to track success of organic marketing efforts without clear targets to test against.
Who is this group of “nontraditional” custom framing customers and how can Framebridge reach them?
Framebridge entered the $4–5B custom framing market hoping to disrupt with its eCommerce website and in-house, centralized manufacturing. After launching, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO, realized that Framebridge made custom framing accessible to new audiences—people who would not have custom framed otherwise—growing the opportunity beyond what she first imagined.
How can Tynan estimate the size of the market while still shaping it?
Today, Framebridge is headquartered in Washington, D.C.; it has grown to operate a manufacturing facility in Kentucky and boasts a team of entirely virtual employees for customer support. For Betsy Hayes, director of human resources, keeping employees across teams and locations engaged is a major concern as Framebridge continues to grow.
What tactics can Hayes use to keep virtual employees connected to the work of the teams at their headquarters and factory?
For Susan Tynan, Founder and CEO, the experience of Framebridge’s website is at the core of the service Framebridge provides. She recognizes the importance of balancing the ease and convenience eCommerce generally affords with optional flows customized to different consumer needs for a truly custom experience. As an aspect of service, site functionality is meant to translate into faster and more frequent sales.
Tynan asks, “What site tools and functionalities should Framebridge develop to facilitate growth?”
Framebridge’s model has proven compelling enough to secure investor funds, but there is pressure to achieve an optimal customer lifetime value (LTV). For a direct-to-consumer company, this comes down to marketing. However, Framebridge has only cracked the surface with early adopters, and there is no telling which segments, channels, and customer characteristics will best indicate potential for repeat purchasing—a key driver of LTV. To plan for the future, Kristin Muhlner, president and COO, needs better predictive capability to drive customer acquisition costs down and LTV up.
How else can Framebridge track and identify opportunities to promote repeat purchasing behavior?
Finding a balance between credibility within the broad sphere of cloud services and providing consumers with clarity on the problem ParkMyCloud (PMC) solves in a crowded space is the challenge marketing director Katy Stalcup faces every day. Prioritization of marketing tactics and lead management is her primary concern when it comes to reaching the right audience. Right now, she is casting a wide net.
Is there a better way to reach the right audience in a crowded space?
ParkMyCloud’s (PMC) focus over the next few years is growth. While opportunity in the United States market may be PMC’s focus for the next 5–10 years, investing to meet needs abroad could provide stability for the future by minimizing sole reliance on the US market. This means investments in partnerships, technology, and internal resources.
How should PMC approach international markets to support growth?
ParkMyCloud (PMC) has always intended to automate cost-saving decisions for customers, but there is a lag time between what the technology is capable of and what customers, even in the technology space, are willing to accept as the responsibility of machines. Product manager Andy Richman believes automatic decision-making by machines will soon replace automatic recommendations for human action. In a world of fully automated computing, how can PMC continue to stand out in terms of the value they provide?
In line with the ethos of the current paradigm of DevOps, ParkMyCloud continuously improves upon the ability to recommend and automate cost-saving practices. However, as automation takes hold across the industry, some DevOps roles may become obsolete. For Chris Parlette, director of cloud solutions, this means he must find a balance between accommodating customer needs under the current paradigm while preparing for the potential that the environment in which PMC is currently built to operate in may fundamentally change—and with it, customer expectations as well.
How can PMC become a more integral part of DevOps processes while at the same time securing their future in cloud services?
Cost savings on cloud services and flexibility in diverse working environments are the two pillars ParkMyCloud’s product is built upon. Those pillars have been critical to establishing the 400+ customers ParkMyCloud (PMC) has today. As the cloud space continues to grow and change, the work that Andy Richman, Product Manager, has put into perfecting the product for PMC’s early adopters will need to translate to an ever-widening audience.
How will PMC communicate value to garner a wider sphere of potential customers in financial and IT management?