How to Launch a Digital Business – DAVID DARMANIN | DMR #170

Today I’m joined by a man who over the past 10 years has generated hundreds of millions of dollars, growth consulting to fortune 500 businesses. He has built teams, developed brands and run hundreds of tests for his clients, resulting in him starting Hotjar – software offering heatmaps, recordings and other website visitor feedback. Welcome to DMR, David Darmanin.

How to Launch a Digital Business - DAVID DARMANIN
How to Launch a Digital Business – DAVID DARMANIN

On this episode of Digital Marketing Radio we discuss how to launch a digital business, with topics including:

  • What made you decide to launch Hotjar?
  • How did you position Hotjar differently compared with the competition?
  • What did the first version of the software look like?
  • How did you recruit your initial users?
  • What initial feedback from your users surprised you the most?
  • What did you optimize about your own purchase process based upon your own software?
  • How big a team did you need to get to that stage?
  • What did public launch of the business involve?
  • What has been the most effective strategy to grow the business quickly?

And you can find David’s 9-step action plan that he talks about towards the end of the interview here.

Software I couldn’t live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Intercom [Customer communication platform]

Google Apps [Team collaboration software suite]

Facebook Ads [Online advertising]

What software don’t you use, but you’ve heard good things about, and you’ve intended to try at some point in the near future?

Tatango [Mobile messaging for agencies]

Gain Insights [Business intelligence]

Tableau [Visualise your own data]

My number 1 takeaway

What’s the single most important step from our discussion that our listener needs to take away and implement in their businesses?

Listen to your users, become your users and give a shit. I’ve worked with so many clients where we have uncovered a big problem that the users have. But then their inability to go out there and execute on that is sometimes worrying, and that can lead to you losing to your competitors… just get out there, find out the number 1 big problem and solve it.