Growmatik is a Marketing Automation SaaS platform that is the choice of marketers and growth officers around the world to solve their biggest marketing automation challenges, as stated on their website. The acquisition enables Convesio to expand its market reach, particularly in the ecommerce space.
In their announcement, Convesio explains that:
[Growmatik] specializes in personalizing user experiences through emails, web content, and pop-ups based on sophisticated user behavior analysis and segmentation.
In particular, the company specializes in personalizing user experiences through emails, web content, and pop-ups based on sophisticated user behavior analysis and segmentation.
Tom Fanelli, Convesio’s CEO, and co-founder, confirmed that no Growmatik staff would be joining his company but that their team would continue to support the product. Growmatik was one of several products developed by Artbees, a WordPress development agency that originally found fortune in Envato’s marketplace.
Growmatik had shut down on 31 March this year
The acquisition represents a second life for Growmatik after it winded down operations on 31 March this year. We can deduce that Convesio has acquired the brand, code-base, and related assets but not paying customers. The sale price would have reflected that.
As of today, new user sign-ups for Growmatik are closed. Existing users can continue using the product until 31 March 2024. On that date, all data associated with your account, including website, campaign, and user data, will be permanently deleted.
Why did Growmatik fail? It is hard to say, but there are a couple of ‘signals’ I’m going to use to interpret to speculate a reason:
- An AppSumo offer can be interpreted as an attempt to generate cash quickly, a tactic often used to sustain operations on the way to profitability
- Limited organic search reach compared to its WordPress competitors
Source: SpyFu
FluentCRM’s impressive SEO efforts stand out, indeed, but it its line would have looked as flat as the rest had I added ActiveCampaign or MailChimp. People are spoilt for choice when it comes to marketing automation, and that makes it hard for a newcomer to get traction. From and SEO perspective, Growmatik clearly didn’t.
The other factor is the product itself. Is Growmatik any good? Their 5/5 stars off 600 installations in the WordPress plugin directory suggests it is. Convesio would not have bought a platform that would still require a lot of work to make it a competitive. That said, we’ll need to check 12 months from now how many active installs their WordPress plugin will have.
I don’t have enough data to explain why Growmatik failed, but my hunch is that Artbees decided to re-focus efforts on other products of their portfolio, sacrificing a technically complex project while trying to make inroads in a hyper-competitive market.
Is all this important to know? Yes. It’s lessons learnt for Convesio’s marketing team.
A smart move by Convesio
Convesio offers scalable WordPress and WooCommerce hosting to businesses running high-volume, high-transaction online stores, membership sites, event websites and elearning operations. It’s fair to assume that a business opting for mission-critical hosting has in place some form of marketing automation.
The new position for Growmatik is explicit in the press release‘s title, mentioning a WooCommerce Marketing Automation Platform. It’s also a cross-sell across Convesio’s other segments. With a bit of luck they will also sign back up percentage of those who had originally implemented Growmatik before it shut down. If they can get to 1,000 customers paying and average of $149 dollars a month, that would make a healthy revenue stream. A goal for the next 12 months, perhaps?
Another benefit is that Convesio now has a plugin in the rep (as soon as the associated author is changed). Search for ‘marketing automation‘ and you will find Growmatik there, along with many other solutions. Which goes to show how competitive it is, even in the WordPress ecosystem.
Then there is the Shopify connection – Growmatik’s Shopify app. Every Shopify store using it will have a relationship with Convesio, via support and account management. They will help trouble-shoot set up, configuration, performance issues (yes, Shopify has them too) and learn about other challenges in the process. In some cases, the solution may well be migrating to WooCommerce. Why not?
Here’s what Convesio will want to see more of, once the app is back in the Shopify Store:
The consideration is about brand. Apart from moving outside the WordPress ecosystem, Convesio’s perception will change within it. Particularly if folks understand the various facets and implications of the move. It will help their partner program too: existing partners will have an additional tool to talk to their customers about, and prospective partners will not consider Convesio just as a specialist WordPress host.
A final thought: what should Convesio’s next acquisition be? What would make sense to purchase or develop to continue with the ecommerce theme?
The hard work starts now
First, they will have to figure our how to sell it along with their current hosting products and services. On their pricing page they make a point that other hosts charge you additional fees for add-ons that we include for free. Will it be bundled with he latter?
Then, they will have to market a product that has already struggled to establish itself once. Going through a much more thorough exercise that I have gone through above to understand why.
Links & further reading
- Convesio’s announcement: Convesio Acquires WooCommerce Marketing Automation Platform Growmatik
- Growmatik’s announcement: Growmatik Joins Forces With Convesio: A Strategic Leap Forward
