Jumpstart: The Guide To Growing A Startup With Inbound Marketing

JUMPSTART:
THE GUIDE TO GROWING
A STARTUP WITH
INBOUND
MARKETING
v 11-14-08-19

Some entrepreneurs
think marketing is
A NECESSARY EVIL.

Others think it is an
AN UNNECESSARY EVIL.

There are only two things
I know something about…

Founded
Angel invested in 50+ startups.
Created OnStartups.com
(400,000+ entrepreneurial community)
The first is startups....

Wrote the book on
it, so to speak.
The second is inbound marketing.
inboundbook.com

So, lets start with WHY
entrepreneurs often avoid marketing.
(not you, of course, those other entrepreneurs)

WHO NEEDS MARKETING?
I’m building something people
will LOVE.

AWESOME!
Marketing can help you
find people to love it.

“I’m just going to
hire a PR
agency.”
(I’m all set)

Stealth mode
is for fighter jets,
not startups.

Stop worrying that
somebody will steal
your idea.
(Start worrying that nobody will care about it)

“I’m just not ready.
I believe in marketing.
Just not right now.”

I UNDERSTAND.
But you should start marketing
the day you start building your product.
(Waiting until you are “ready” is to...

“Marketing
seems really
unpleasant.”

YOU’RE NOT ALONE.
The marketing has a problem.
Less Trusted More Trusted
Stockbrokers LawyersCar Sales Lobbyists
Marketers...

But, that’s old-school marketing.
When done right, marketing isn’t unpleasant.
(more on this a bit later)

“I’ve raised
funding.
I’ll just buy my
way through.”

CONGRATS! (on the funding)
But, there are a few issues with
buying your way through.

You’re not really
buying attention,
you’re renting it.

Ads are
TEMPORARY.
When you stop
paying the “rent”,
you stop getting
the attention.

Your well heeled
competitor has a
massive
marketing budget.
And you…
not so much.
.

Startups shouldn’t get into the arms race for attention.

You can’t out-spend
the behemoths.
Not only do they have more money,
they have fewer brain cells.

Oh, and one last issue
with interruptive marketing…

NOBODY wakes up
and thinks:
“I hope
I get spammed
today.”

95%of people
don’t like being
interrupted.

33
“OK fine. I don’t
want to annoy
people.
What’s a better
way?”

Inbound takes the
marketing
people know
(and hate)

It focuses on
attracting people
instead of annoying them.

It also helps startups get long-term leverage.
you

“I like the
sound of
that…
…tell me
more.”

It’s simple.
(but not easy)
It’s about providing value
instead of pushing your way in.

And the most common way to do that
is to create content that’s helpful.

You’ve heard of
product/market fit?

You can always feel when product/market fit
isn’t happening.
The customers aren’t quite getting value and
word of mouth is...

Inbound marketing starts with
content/market fit.

Some types of content you can create…
Blogs
Photos &
Infographics
Videos &
Podcasts
Presentations
& eBooks
Software /
Tool...

Software /
Tools
= content
Free tools can be
exceptionally effective marketing content.
(example: see grader.com)

=
What’s even better than free tools?
Tools powered by proprietary data.
+

This is great news if you prefer
Programming over PowerPoint.

While we’re on the topic
of building product…

Build your marketing machine
just like you build your product.

Release early, release often.
Publish early, publish often.

And, validated learning applies here too.
Publish
MeasureLearn

Now, back to the types of content.
ONE word of advice.

So that’s a bit about
strategy and philosophy.
Now, let’s dig in to some details.

To better understand this,
here’s a typical flow…

Blogging CMS Social SEO
Email
Nurturing
Landing
Pages
Calls-to-
action
Sales Analytics CRM
Typical applications
needed for...

Blogging Website Pages Social SEO
Email
2.0
Landing
Pages
Calls-to-
action
Analytics CRM
“Top Of The Funnel”
is about pull...

Blogging Website Pages Social SEO
Email
2.0
Landing
Pages
Calls-to-
action
Analytics CRM
“Middle Of The Funnel”
is about c...

Did you know there are
5.9 BILLION
searches on
every day?
(me neither, had to look it up)

Maybe a few of those people
would be interested
in your product?

You need to know
at least the basics
of Search Engine Optimization
(SEO)

“Wait. Can’t I just
buy pay-per-click
(PPC) ads?”

Yes, you can.
PPC ads are a great
way to learn what works.

But a couple of issues.
#1: You’re still renting attention.
#2…

Why pay to reach the 10%,
when the other 90% are
free low marginal cost?

So, invest in organic search.
As ye SEO,
so shall ye reap.

ONCE UPON A TIME,
SEO was about clever tricks
to get a web page to rank.

Smart SEOs will tell you:
Don’t try these tricks,
they can be toxic.
(I’ll tell you the same thing)

Before you do any SEO,
you’ll need to pick
the search keywords
you will focus on.

Be careful
about the
keywords you
pick.

You want keywords that have
decent search volume
(people search for that word)

Don’t pick
keywords that are
so competitive
that you’ll never
rank.
(Don’t pick a fight with a ninja)

There are tools available
to help with
keyword discovery and selection.
HubSpot includes
a tool for this.
(Just sayin’. Cl...

Here’s what it looks like…

Now, prepare for the
advice on SEO you will ever hear...
(at least from me)

Solve for the searcher
not the search engine.
Happy Humans = Happy Google
Happy Google = Better Rankings

Relevant, useful content
makes humans happy.

Fast web sites make
people happy.

Clear, well designed sites
make users happy.
Invest in great design
and user experience.

Mobile friendly websites make
people happy.

Once you’ve created content,
and optimized it.
The next step is to spread it.

That’s where social media can help.

Make it dead-simple
to share your content.
Put sharing buttons
on your site.
The easier it is to share,
the more people wi...

For social to work, you’ll need followers
(social marketing is not much fun without it)

What’s the best way to get fans?
Create value for the connections
you hope to get someday.

Don’t try and
automate
getting fans or
followers.

Numbers may
go up, but
your brand
goes down.

So, you’re creating a bunch
of great content, rockin’ on
social and people are
starting to visit your
website.

It’s not a torrent of traffic,
but everyone starts
somewhere.
Now, you need to start
converting these random
visitors.

Based on your business,
you want them to become:
1. users/trials
2. leads
3. customers

First thing you should do:
Implement “Calls To Action”
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Other examples
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Now, a life-changing
question you may be asking
yourself…

Who do I hire for marketing?
4

In a startup,
everyone should be selling.
And, everyone
should be marketing.

Who is going to do all this?
What kind of person
do I need?

You want someone
that’s going to jump in
and start helping your
future users/customers.

Digital
Citizen
Content
Creator
Reach
Builder
Analytically
Driven
D A
C R

It’s like Hacker News
for inbound marketing
(27,000+ members)
Community you should join.
inbound.org

Book you should read
It’s short and painless
inboundbook.com

The event you should attend.
visit inbound.com
Come see Guy Kawasaki, Simon Sinek, Rand Fishkin, Sean Ellis…and me.

Oh, and you should
Check out HubSpot
DO all your marketing on one system
(blogging, SEO, social, landing pages, etc.)
KNOW...

THANK YOU!
Hope this was helpful and fun.
Want to discuss this deck further?
Ask Me About It On inbound.org

Jumpstart: The Guide To Growing A Startup With Inbound Marketing