The challenges faced by Branch along the way and how they were overcome
Heather Arranie 
Branch is an expert in mobile deep links and referral marketing. Founded in 2014, they quickly became a global leader by helping companies engage their users and shape their experiences. By 2022, they had exceeded revenue of $71.3M with 900 customers.
It was a challenging but rewarding journey for Branch, who overcame major obstacles to success. This article will explore Branch’s challenges and how they overcame them to become international leaders in deep links and referral marketing software.
How Branch hit $71.3M Revenue with 900 customers in 2022.
Branch is a mobile linking platform that helps businesses drive growth and engagement through deep links.
Branch faced many challenges as a startup, from product-market fit to monetization. In this section, we’ll discuss these challenges and how Branch overcame them to reach an impressive $71.3M in revenue and 900 customers by 2022.
Struggling to find Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit is a key milestone for any startup’s growth, and ensuring you have achieved it is essential for sustainable success. A digital banking service, Branch experienced the challenge of finding product-market fit first-hand throughout its growth journey.
Initially the branch team needed to redefine the customer segment they were targeting, which was difficult as there were so many potential audiences to choose from. Additionally, they struggled significantly to drive organic growth due to low customer feedback and high acquisition costs. To overcome this challenge, they usually worked on identifying their target market segment by researching customer data and listening to customer feedback daily.
From these initial steps, the team at Branch was able to identify attractive verticals within financial services and develop products accordingly that offered an improved service offering than what was previously available in these markets. As a result of this hard work Branch surpassed every pre-launch goal and found product-market fit by early 2022 with more than 900 customers and total revenue of US$71.3M in their first 12 months of commercial operations.
Securing Funding
One of the biggest challenges faced by Branch was securing funding to support and grow their business. This issue arose because investors had difficulty understanding how Branch operated – a mobile first deep linking platform – and were unsure if it could help address the challenges companies were facing.
To attract investments, Branch took several initiatives such as pivoting their focus from providing an end-to-end omnichannel experience to connecting customers with existing mobile apps. They also shared detailed strategies that showed their business was the leading innovator in deep linking and could drive significant results for companies – this helped them secure $60M in equity funding in 2016.
The funding enabled Branch to hire experienced professionals, expand into new markets, strengthen their technical capabilities, launch new products, and build relationships with key players in the industry such as Apple, Google, and Twitter. This has allowed them to increase their total revenue from $1.5M in 2013 to $71.3M in 2022 while adding over 900 enterprise customers.
Hiring the Right Talent
One of the greatest challenges Branch faced on their journey to success was finding the right employees for their team. With such an ambitious goal, it was vital to bring on talented, passionate individuals who understood and believed in their mission. From the beginning of creating the company and honing their business model, all the way up to scaling their operations and expanding into new markets, ensuring they had qualified personnel to facilitate each step was critical.
From finding a CTO to marketing and sales executives, recruiting at every level proved difficult because they needed to ensure they found team members with the right skillset and culture fit. To this end Branch grew its hiring process by focusing on outreach campaigns in strategic areas and through programs like referral schemes which helped them bring aboard only top-tier talent that truly understood their goals. They also used external resources like recruiters with expertise in pinpointing professionals with backgrounds in product design, engineering, marketing & more.
Investing in career acceleration initiatives also helped Branch hone its brand value among potential recruits. Over time, it became an attractive employer for even some of the most experienced professionals. As a result, Branch built up a dedicated team of tech developers & savvy sales executives, which allowed them to scale rapidly by 2021 hitting $71.3M in annual recurring revenues from over 900 customers.
Solutions Implemented
Branch’s journey to achieving $71.3M revenue with 900 customers in 2022 was not easy. They faced a range of issues and challenges along the way and needed to come up with creative solutions to overcome them.
This section will provide an in-depth look at the solutions Branch implemented to overcome these challenges and reach their goals.
Developing a Data-Driven Approach
To overcome the various challenges they encountered along the way, Branch developed a data-driven approach that focused on what customers needed to succeed and how to meet those needs. By carefully analysing their customer base, Branch was able to identify their top opportunities and prioritise their investments accordingly.
Branch devised an innovative architecture, which merged data from various sources into a single warehouse and gave them access to insights in real-time. This allowed them to target customers with a tailored approach, customising offers and services based on individual customer needs. Additionally, they integrated machine-learning algorithms into their systems — allowing them to create smarter models for predicting customer behaviour and optimising product performance.
With this powerful toolkit in place, Branch was able to take a holistic view of the market, uncovering new consumer and industry trends faster than ever before. In addition, they implemented agile practices which enabled them to rapidly respond to customer demands, allowing adjustment cycles of less than 3 days — during which time they would measure their strategies’ efficacy—ensuring growth along the way. As word of mouth increased about their results-oriented approach, more customers signed up for Branch’s services, resulting in $71.3M revenue with 900 customers at the end of 2022.
Leveraging Network Effects
Branch faced a challenge when they needed to keep customers engaged throughout their journey and increase visibility in the market. To do this, they leveraged network effects: maximising the value of their platform by encouraging collaboration within their user base.
They employed various tactics to ensure users from different streams and backgrounds interacted on Branch’s platform. For example, they provided financial incentives for referring businesses, recommending products and services, and inviting customers to join them in growing their network-thus amplifying reach and engagement.
Branch also leveraged influencers by partnering with industry thought-leaders who could spread word about their product on social media, enhance user experience, provide consultation around product development, and establish them as trusted operators within the sector. This improved customer loyalty and amplified their exposure in the market, boosting organic growth opportunities and retaining customers even further down the track.
Overall, leveraging network effects proved an effective strategy for Branch as it allowed them to hit $71.3M revenue in 2019 with 900 active customers – allowing them to achieve consistent success throughout 2022 despite the pandemic induced economic downturns.
Building a Strong Brand
Building a strong brand is essential for any business, and it was no different when it came to Branch’s success. To ensure a recognizable and reliable presence, they built trust and loyalty in their existing customers by offering excellent customer service and service-level agreements. In addition, they encouraged customers to post product reviews with feedback, increasing their exposure and showing the brand’s commitment to quality. They also conducted surveys to better understand customer needs, allowing them to make adjustments for continual improvement.
Branch even held conferences around the world to connect with their customers, gain insight into industry trends, and remain visible in the marketplace. As a result of these strategies, Branch hit $71.3M Revenue with 900 customers in 2022.
Results Achieved
Branch accrued $71.3M in revenue in four years and signed 900 customers in 2022. This impressive feat was no easy task and overcame many challenges. This article will provide a glimpse into how Branch hit these remarkable milestones, looking at their challenges and how they were solved.
Reaching $71.3M Revenue
Reaching the milestone of $71.3 million in revenue with 900 customers was no easy task. Before they achieved this goal, Branch had to face many challenges along the way. However, by taking decisive steps and implementing innovative methods, the company overcame those pressures and reached their ambitious benchmark.
Branch’s first step to achieve their goal was to construct an effective sales strategy. This included hiring specialists with industry experience and establishing an aggressive sales effort targeting organisations of all sizes across various industries. In addition, Branch invested heavily in customer service to provide a positive experience for all customers and developed robust marketing initiatives that utilised digital channels for added reach and efficiency.
Moreover, Branch sought partners and vendors who shared their vision for growth and provided technology solutions that improved productivity and the customer experience even further. These unified efforts led to significant gains in customer acquisition, retention, pricing power, operating efficiency, profitability and ultimately allowed them to hit $71.3 million in revenue with 900 customers by 2022.
Overall, Branch executed a series of highly successful strategies and reforms on both the business side as well as the customer service side which enabled them to reach their goal of increased revenue while providing an excellent service offering which retained valued customers all while leveraging inventive sales strategies targeting new industries -all culminating into repeatable success established by meeting performance targets within tight deadlines that would eventually lead them towards achieving their ambitious goals at year end for 2022.
Acquiring 900 Customers
To reach their goal of 9 00 customers, Branch had to focus on several key strategies.
The first strategy was to set realistic customer acquisition targets. For example, setting the right number of customers every quarter gave the team a goal and allowed them to measure weekly, monthly, and quarterly progress. It also motivated them to proactively find new customers while meeting their current commitments.
Second, they honed in on their target customer demographic. Understanding who they should be targeting and focusing their efforts enabled them to make the best use of their time and resources when pursuing new customers.
Thirdly, they established processes around customer identification and onboarding to reduce lead-to-customer conversion time from 90 days to just 10 days. This was achieved by creating automated systems for identifying qualified leads quickly and developing repeatable processes for onboarding efficiently so the Branch team could move onto acquiring even more new clients with confidence that the ones that had already been acquired would stay loyal for years to come.
Fourthly, innovative approaches such as webinars and content marketing were implemented as part of a wider digital marketing strategy which enabled Branch’s sales force to have meaningful conversations with potential customers early on in the process; rather than having cold calls result in few results due to lack of awareness or knowledge about our product offering.
Finally, Branch placed high importance on finding strategic partners who could help with customer acquisition while bringing additional customers onboard through direct referrals or cross-promotion campaigns. These partnerships allowed them access to untapped markets while optimising ROI for acquiring new customers.
