Product Marketing “Teardown Tuesday”2/7/17 - Slack Enterprise Grid

Overall, this is a very simple above the fold page. Normally we marketers try and cram value prop H1s, H2s or CTAs into the “above the fold” space but Slack cooled their jets here and used this opportunity to differentiate themselves from every other tech website out there (that all of us are sick of looking at) by doing the exact opposite.

“Let’s get to work” and “power up every part of your business” set an inspirational tone and establish a relationship with the viewer.

With that rapport and the fact there’s no CTA on the page, the viewer is curious and HAS to explore further. I’d be interested to see what bounce rate for the page is, I bet it’s low.

Again, the first text below the fold is simple and continues to build rapport with the viewer. This paragraph accomplishes 3 things-1/ Tells the viewer Slack understands there’s a difference between its small/big customers2/ Explains that’s why they built this product, signalling to the viewer they’re a customer-driven company (and elegantly introduces the product)3/ Leaves the reader curious for more, forcing them to continue farther down the page

Starts to introduce what Grid does by piggy-backing off the market/customer’s existing understanding of Slack and reiterates Slack understands the problems of enterprise-level customers.

The iconography, dark background and selective colors give the product a refined feel while not departing the ‘fun’ and ‘hip’ parts of Slack’s brand.

Slack starts introducing benefits and features here. Note they choose to highlight the bottom one first. This means it’s the most pervasive or relevant to their customer. Putting it at the bottom makes the viewer want to go back and read/click on the other ones for fear of missing the whole picture. Subtle but clever trick.

Security is important to enterprise clients, which is why Slack calls it out in an entirely separate section. Speak to what your customer cares about!

This subtly introduces (a lot of) features and capabilities by speaking to customer fears and problems. When I’m done reading this, I feel engaged, satiated and confident. Not bored.

Logos for social proof and to reduce the amount of text the reader has to process

Lets technical audiences dive into in depth info on security stuff if that’s what they care about. Goes to a separate, dedicated security page.

This section condenses 3 different value props into one section - 1/ My whole company can use this tool because 2/ it integrates with everything while 3/ still letting me choose who and when gets what integration

Logos for social proof and to reduce the amount of text the reader has to process

If you’ve got it, flaunt it! 900 apps and bots?! “Holy crap, there must be something for me!”

By now, viewers have been guided through the basics of Grid, how it works and all the stuff it integrates with. Time to instill more confidence with a testimonial! Note how they made this front and center, and who it’s from. Enterprise customers looking to roll out company-wide software typically translates into heavy involvement and buy-in from the CIO. Slack knows this is the critical decisionmaker and wisely chooses to display a testimonial from a CIO at a household name company.

Ooh! I wanted more, glad they didn’t clutter the page but I can go hear the full story if I want to!

Often times with enterprise products, the accompanying services are almost as important as the product itself. I like how Slack used the opportunity to mention this as they set up the CTA. Lets the viewer know they exist but leaves them curious for more, right above the demo button. Likely converts viewers interested in services who may not have converted on just product alone.

Scoring (out of 5) - 4 overall

4I love Slack’s tone on this page. It’s inspirational and reassuring. Instead of hitting the viewer over the head with value props and CTAs, Slack takes the time to tell a story. They slow things down, build curiosity and slowly introduce carefully selected components with minimalist messaging. The result is the viewer isn’t overwhelmed with enterprise speak and is curious for more, making them more likely to convert to demo.

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While this is a release page and meant to be a little mysterious, I would have loved more info or somewhere to go for more background on the product and its capabilities. Slack wrote a post about Grid that does an excellent job of this. This page is likely effective in driving conversions to demo, so one could argue that it serves it purpose. However it doesn’t leave me with a clear understanding of the product, how it differs from ‘regular’ Slack, or enough detail for me to self-qualify as to whether I’m an enterprise-level user or not.

While I like how they used a dark background to differentiate their enterprise product from their regular product, and while darker colors are often associated with elegance or sophistication, the site is REALLY dark as a result. More use of selective coloring or varying the background color between darker tones with each section may have ‘lightened up’ the mood.

All dogs to go heaven, all enterprise sales pages end with “demo.” No surprise here. Two things I liked - 1/ they wait until the bottom (after they’ve explained everything and given social proof) to ask the user for a demo, this works because the page isn’t TOO long and 2/ they tailored the two other options (the security subpage and customer story) to what’s most important for the buyer and didn’t give the buyer too many options to lose focus.

MESSAGING

PRODUCT

DESIGN

CTA’S