The Ledger

Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.

clear all ✕

why aren't all 11 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Requiring credit cards for free trials generated $500K incremental ARR for Lucidchart
“These changes ultimately on, on the pricing page ended up back in the day for us, Contributing about 500,000 dollars of incremental revenue in just 12 months, which was a huge win for us back at the time. And overall, they increased payments by 25%, which is o…”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 8:38 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
What-if
Blindly trusting conversion data would have trapped Lucidchart with a poor homepage
“If we had trusted, just purely trusted the data on all of those homepage experiments, We would still be stuck with that really crappy homepage as opposed to something that I think resonates more as we evolve as a company.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 24:51 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Insight
Lucidchart's viral pop culture flowcharts ultimately failed to communicate core product utility
“We realized it actually didn't do a great job of introducing you to the product, even less so than the song ones, and telling you how to use our product or what it would be useful for.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 18:23 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Emphasizing free plans increased Lucidchart registrations but hurt downstream paid conversions
“And our thought, obviously, was that, you know, free would lower the barrier for people to enter, and it's true that it increased a lot of registrations, right? But what happened is we brought in a lot of interest, but they were, because they were anchored on …”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 10:13 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Replacing 'start free trial' with 'try or buy' improved Lucidchart's lead quality
“And instead of saying, start a free trial, We've now saying, you know, try or buy, and so that's a actually meaningful difference, like just de-emphasizing that idea of free. And so what we found is, you know, obviously we've lost some traffic, lost some regis…”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 10:53 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Insight
Desaturated org charts with grayed-out faces converted best on Lucidchart's homepage
“This org chart was the most effective, and not only was the org chart more effective, but we realized that when you put people's faces in pictures, it resonated more with people, and even furthermore, it worked best when these faces were sort of grayed out or …”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 15:00 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Assertion Supported
Lucidchart's 'Explains the Internet' marketing campaign surpassed 280 million total views
“This campaign is called Lucidchart Explains the Internet and it now has over two hundred and eighty million views.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 23:10 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lucidchart's original doggo meme video received 33 million organic views in days
“Within a couple of days, it got thirty-three million views, and we had not done a single thing to push it.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 22:50 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Assertion Contradicted
Adweek named Lucidchart's series the only ad campaign that mattered in 2018
“And actually, it was recognized by Adweek last year as, quote, the only ad campaign that truly mattered in 2018.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 23:37 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Disclosure
Karl Sun initially opposed requiring credit cards for Lucidchart's free trials
“I was actually one of those people. I was against this approach. I said, well, let's try it, but I don't like it.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 9:05 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
Disclosure
Lucidchart's viral song flowchart campaign originated in a summer hackathon
“Out of a summer hackathon, there was this idea for what we call the songtacular flowdown, where we would take popular songs and use it to display the ease of use and functionality of our product.”
Karl Sun Jul 16, 2019 ▶ 16:01 "Our best and worst marketing experiments" Lucidchart Co-Founder and CEO Karl Sun
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