Hello! I run my own Instagram Growth As A Service since 2017. Growing fast :) Love your article
1
how does instagram growth as a service actually work? Do you produce content? Or what? I'm curious.
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Hi @from_30_to_greatness oh yeas it works ;) We do not produce content at this moment.
1
And we are from the same small town in Belgium, the world really is small!
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Can you give some tips or light into how you're making the unit economics work? I mean...unlimited for a creative intense work can be dangerously expensive for you guys if you have customers changing hings all the time!
2
Robin, I have to comment that the new blue-based style of many pixels looks more serious than your previous version, you are running a design service, not a financial one, so I would go with more red, orange colors like you had before. Just my opinion with all respect. And thanks for the article. Congratulations on this huge success!
1
Thanks, let me ask our designers to do some explorations around this. I agree that the design / look is a little bland and should be more vibrant for a design service.
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Thanks for posting, it was a great article.
When you say "This should not take more than a day to launch" for the MVP, is that total time you should spend on it?? Or is that just for the landing page? One day seems crazy even just for an MVP.
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For a productized service in my opinion nothing should be coded, so maximum one day to launch is what I believe should be right.
1
Interesting. I guess another benefit you get from that is being able to parallelize your marketing and development efforts.
2
How do you treat account/client management?
I'm working on a productized service as well (PR as a service: https://www.aidem.network), and that's been one of the toughest parts. Traditional products usually don't have the high operating costs of constant communication with your customers. Any pro tips?
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Hey Matt! We invite clients to our Slack currently. However, honestly right now it is a little bit of a mess. Max and I handle clients over WhatsApp and emails as well. We are trying to be super responsive and super close to clients.
So right now, no pro tips :( but also happy to hear how anyone would streamline the initial briefing and ongoing communication for productized startups like Aidem and Manypixels.
3
You should check out www.Recapped.io (spoiler - I'm a founder), but it could be a great way to have your entire conversation in a single place. You can upload content, set next steps, loop in multiple people, and have them all comment in real time.
1
Recapped looks interesting - do you have a demo video available?
1
Love it. Let me explore this tomorrow first thing.
1
Awesome, more than happy to hop on a quick google hangout and answer any questions. Just pm me or mark@recapped.io
p.s. love the idea and product - we might enroll in a few months
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Account management as a service 🤔
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Nice work. Is this an agency or a saas? Productized service provider I guess could be its own category.
I'm looking into starting my own agency. Right now I just accept any project...I should systematize my processes.
1
This is in between. We are basically offering various design services for a fixed fee per month. It is useful for startups that want to explore new landing pages, have banners, have illustrations for their blog posts (like the one we did for that post), have new business cards or even pitch decks, company profiles, etc.
1
Robin, thanks for sharing your experience generously. Could you share your experiences in finding workers/designers and managing them? How do you find reliable freelancers? do you manage them remotely? how to design a productive system to get the best result?
1
Hey Robin,
Nice article, thanks for that. I've been researching about Productized Services lately, but there is still a gray area that I do not understand: how do you build the "workforce" to tackle all the client requests? Is it all based on freelancing contracts, or do you actually hire fulltime people?
Thanks!!
Best,
Daniel
1
I've seen all full-time, a hybrid and all freelance. Most common seems to be having a handful of staff in-house (for emergencies, possible client meetings etc) and then outsourcing for the overflow.
1
I love the whole concept. Great read thank you.
1
How do you start without technical knowledge? You hire someone from the beginning? Thank you
1
Robin, great article thanks. I own a large community (nearly 100k users), it's related to internet marketing. Can you email me some info regarding a referral program.
Have you looked into products like JarHQ or PM software with webforms for this part fo the process?
1
I'd be interested in learning a little more about how you scope your services. Scope creep from your clients seems like a risk to margins.
Also what does your customer churn look like - for instance, if someone signs up, asks for one design and decide they don't quite understand why they are paying monthly and cancel.
I really like the idea of having a designer in your back pocket, but that's basically a retainer for your services. I suppose your value prop is that you're cheaper than hiring someone, right?
1
Cool idea! Thanks very thoughtful and interesting info.
Hello! I run my own Instagram Growth As A Service since 2017. Growing fast :) Love your article
how does instagram growth as a service actually work? Do you produce content? Or what? I'm curious.
Hi @from_30_to_greatness oh yeas it works ;) We do not produce content at this moment.
And we are from the same small town in Belgium, the world really is small!
Can you give some tips or light into how you're making the unit economics work? I mean...unlimited for a creative intense work can be dangerously expensive for you guys if you have customers changing hings all the time!
Robin, I have to comment that the new blue-based style of many pixels looks more serious than your previous version, you are running a design service, not a financial one, so I would go with more red, orange colors like you had before. Just my opinion with all respect. And thanks for the article. Congratulations on this huge success!
Thanks, let me ask our designers to do some explorations around this. I agree that the design / look is a little bland and should be more vibrant for a design service.
Thanks for posting, it was a great article.
When you say "This should not take more than a day to launch" for the MVP, is that total time you should spend on it?? Or is that just for the landing page? One day seems crazy even just for an MVP.
For a productized service in my opinion nothing should be coded, so maximum one day to launch is what I believe should be right.
Interesting. I guess another benefit you get from that is being able to parallelize your marketing and development efforts.
How do you treat account/client management?
I'm working on a productized service as well (PR as a service: https://www.aidem.network), and that's been one of the toughest parts. Traditional products usually don't have the high operating costs of constant communication with your customers. Any pro tips?
Hey Matt! We invite clients to our Slack currently. However, honestly right now it is a little bit of a mess. Max and I handle clients over WhatsApp and emails as well. We are trying to be super responsive and super close to clients.
So right now, no pro tips :( but also happy to hear how anyone would streamline the initial briefing and ongoing communication for productized startups like Aidem and Manypixels.
You should check out www.Recapped.io (spoiler - I'm a founder), but it could be a great way to have your entire conversation in a single place. You can upload content, set next steps, loop in multiple people, and have them all comment in real time.
Recapped looks interesting - do you have a demo video available?
Love it. Let me explore this tomorrow first thing.
Awesome, more than happy to hop on a quick google hangout and answer any questions. Just pm me or mark@recapped.io
p.s. love the idea and product - we might enroll in a few months
Account management as a service 🤔
Nice work. Is this an agency or a saas? Productized service provider I guess could be its own category.
I'm looking into starting my own agency. Right now I just accept any project...I should systematize my processes.
This is in between. We are basically offering various design services for a fixed fee per month. It is useful for startups that want to explore new landing pages, have banners, have illustrations for their blog posts (like the one we did for that post), have new business cards or even pitch decks, company profiles, etc.
Robin, thanks for sharing your experience generously. Could you share your experiences in finding workers/designers and managing them? How do you find reliable freelancers? do you manage them remotely? how to design a productive system to get the best result?
Hey Robin,
Nice article, thanks for that. I've been researching about Productized Services lately, but there is still a gray area that I do not understand: how do you build the "workforce" to tackle all the client requests? Is it all based on freelancing contracts, or do you actually hire fulltime people?
Thanks!!
Best,
Daniel
I've seen all full-time, a hybrid and all freelance. Most common seems to be having a handful of staff in-house (for emergencies, possible client meetings etc) and then outsourcing for the overflow.
I love the whole concept. Great read thank you.
How do you start without technical knowledge? You hire someone from the beginning? Thank you
Robin, great article thanks. I own a large community (nearly 100k users), it's related to internet marketing. Can you email me some info regarding a referral program.
Thanks
Hey Lee! Sure thing. My email is info@manypixels.co btw!
So how do clients give you their briefs?
Via Typeform.
Have you looked into products like JarHQ or PM software with webforms for this part fo the process?
I'd be interested in learning a little more about how you scope your services. Scope creep from your clients seems like a risk to margins.
Also what does your customer churn look like - for instance, if someone signs up, asks for one design and decide they don't quite understand why they are paying monthly and cancel.
I really like the idea of having a designer in your back pocket, but that's basically a retainer for your services. I suppose your value prop is that you're cheaper than hiring someone, right?
Cool idea! Thanks very thoughtful and interesting info.