Exactly: 10x conversion through ideal customer research

"Overall, working with Andrew has been invaluable, and we continue to benefit from his guidance."  

^{Tonia Samsonova, CEO at Exactly.ai}

The Challenge

Finding focus in a new creative frontier

Exactly.ai is building something revolutionary: a platform that puts AI in service of creators, rather than the other way around. Their technology allows brands to train AI models on their own artwork, generating new pieces that maintain their unique style while speeding up their workflow. Brands like Sony, Uniqlo and Nike have now built them into their creative process.

We got involved earlier in Exactly’s rapid evolution. As they began to monetise, different types of creators were adopting the platform in varying ways, from fine artists to graphic designers to tattoo artists, each bringing their own needs and use cases.

The team needed to understand who their platform was resonating with most strongly and why. This understanding would be crucial for focusing their development efforts and finding true product-market fit. When you're pioneering a new category of creative tool, the possibilities are endless, but resources aren't.

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Our Approach

Deep conversations with creative pioneers

We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 paying customers, spanning a diverse range of creative disciplines. Our conversations explored:

• Their creative process and relationship with AI tools
• The journey that led them to choose and pay for Exactly
• How the platform has transformed their work since adoption

Working closely with Exactly's product manager, we designed an interview framework that would help uncover not just how people were using the platform, but what it meant for their creative practice. We needed to understand both the practical benefits and the deeper impact on their artistic process.

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We heard first-hand from creators who had shaved hours off their process, which meant that platform fees immediately paid for themselves in the time saved or new time made available for exploration and production.

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The Outcome

10x conversion improvement

"These insights enabled us to prioritize our product and marketing backlog, define our OKRs for the next period, and ultimately improve customer acquisition. The framework remains a core part of our ongoing strategy."  

^{Tonia Samsonova, CEO at Exactly.ai}

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The research revealed a crucial pattern among one key group of users: Exactly was fundamentally transforming their professional creative workflow. This finding allowed them to have a clear focus on one ideal customer profile (ICP), a decision which led to a 10 x improvement in the conversion rate (CR) from registration to purchase.

What they also received was:

• A playback to the entire company to walk them through the findings and answer questions
• A structured framework for user interviews and research which they still use today
• Detailed customer profiles, which gave them a much deeper understanding of their audience

This great outcome was a result of multiple teams at Exactly being open to our customer insights, then executing effectively on the product and marketing. Since our work together, it’s been great to watch the company go from strength to strength.

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Could your business benefit from Ideal Customer research?

Can you answer the question: who is our best customer, and why do they buy our product?

Or maybe you are being pulled in different directions by multiple customer types. This is a good time to run some Ideal Customer research: it'll give you the evidence you need to confidently prioritise who to focus your efforts on.

We've helped businesses that sell online achieve 2-10x conversion improvements by revealing the real reasons customers choose them. Get in touch below to discuss whether a project or training could unlock your next phase of growth.

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