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Distribution Hacks: 5 Simple Steps to Get In Front of Your Ideal Customer
Three Main Marketing Types Concept / Idea Elevation • Broad / Market Making • Success = ??? 2. Brand Positioning • brand associated with concept • success is hard to measure 3. Direct Response • Product in Front of Ideal Customers • Success = They Take Appropriate Action (sign-up, purchase, trial, etc.) Getting your product in front of your customer. I’ve got a Dirty Little Secret Stick around… I’ll share it at the end Partnerships • Intermediaries (VARs/Distributors/Affiliates) • Joint Ventures (co-marketing, offers, etc.) • Integrations Advertising • PPC/CPM • Display Networks • Content Amplification • Billboards on the 101 Content • Blogs • News • Webinars (SPOILER ALERT!) • Whitepapers • Books (e or otherwise) • Data • Apps • Community Outreach • Cold Emails • Cold Calling • Direct Postal Mail Virality • Use-based (communication, social networks, etc.) • Invitation-based • Referrals (incentivized invitations) • Powered By / Widgets Don’t START with Tactics. That’s where most people go wrong. Start with your Customer! Do this first. Why Focus on an Ideal Customer? • FOMO is telling you NOT to do this. • You must know your Ideal Customer Better than they Know Themselves “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937) Ideal Customer Define ➔Find ➔ Compel ➔ Convert There is no Universal definition of Ideal Customer • This is a living, breathing “definition”… Ideal Customer - Situational Definition Ready Willing Able Profitable Expansion Potential Virality Who’s your Less-Than-Ideal Customer? Ideal Customer Find Talk to your Customers & Prospects Not all Competitors are the same How to Find your Competitors’ Customers Ask the Customers of your Competitors Look for Patterns • In bad-guy hacking, this is called the "Watering hole” attack… Do they read this magazine, or listen to that podcast? The patterns will start to give you insights into how to get in front of your audience or what distribution channels you’ll use Speak directly to your Ideal Customer Based on the channel, the IC, the situation, offer, etc. And once hooked, the secret to getting them to take action When you do what we covered today: • You don’t have to test as much • Testing really is only for optimization • Trial and Error goes away • Even “ugly” designs and bad copy (relatively speaking) can work when highly-targeted.
Distribution Hacks: 5 Simple Steps to Get In Front of Your Ideal Customer
- 1. Lincoln Murphy Distribution Hacks 5Simple Steps to Get In Front of Your Ideal Customer
- 2. Dan McGaw -KISSmetrics - @danielmcgaw ! Dan is the Director of Marketing at KISSmetrics, where he get’s the opportunity to help the best marketers in the world measure their marketing and business efforts. Prior to KISSmetrics, Dan was VP of growth at Code School, where he helped the company grow to over 500k users and $400k+ in monthly revenue. Lincoln Murphy - Sixteen Ventures - @lincolnmurphy ! Over the past 7 years, Lincoln Murphy, Managing Director of Sixteen Ventures, has helped 300+ SaaS companies - as well as thousands more through his writing, workshops, and speaking - accelerate their growth by optimizing the Customer Lifecycle, from customer acquisition to retention. He’s been featured in Fast Company, Inc., VentureBeat, and GrowthHacker.tv.
- 3. @lincolnmurphy #distrohacks Follow-me andjoin the conversation
- 4. @danielmcgaw #KISSwebinar Follow-me andjoin the conversation
- 5. 1 Se ingthe stage Define Find Compel Convert 2 Ideal Customer 3 Q&A Table of Contents 2 Distribution
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- 7. Se ing theStage 3 Types of Marketing, a brief History Lesson, and Tactics!
- 8. Three Main MarketingTypes We’re focused on #3 today… 1. Concept / Idea Elevation • Broad / Market Making • Success = ??? 2. Brand Positioning • brand associated with concept • success is hard to measure 3. Direct Response • Product in Front of Ideal Customers • Success = They Take Appropriate Action (sign-up, purchase, trial, etc.)
- 9. Product Price Promotion Place Evolutionof the Traditional Marketing Mix Product Price Promotion + Place Product Price Distribution Se ing the Stage
- 10. Distribution Ge ing yourproduct in front of your customer. Period.
- 11. I’ve got aDirty Li le Secret Stick around… I’ll share it at the end
- 12. Tactics of Distribution Including,but not limited to. • Partnerships • Intermediaries (VARs/Distributors/Affiliates) • Joint Ventures (co-marketing, offers, etc.) • Integrations
- 13. Tactics of Distribution Including,but not limited to. • Advertising • PPC/CPM • Display Networks • Content Amplification • Billboards on the 101
- 14. Tactics of Distribution Including,but not limited to. Content • Blogs • News • Webinars (SPOILER ALERT!) • Whitepapers • Books (e or otherwise) • Data • Apps • Community
- 15. Tactics of Distribution Including,but not limited to. • Outreach • Cold Emails • Cold Calling • Direct Postal Mail
- 16. Tactics of Distribution Including,but not limited to. • Virality • Use-based (communication, social networks, etc.) • Invitation-based • Referrals (incentivized invitations) • Powered By / Widgets
- 17. Don’t START withTactics. That’s where most people go wrong.
- 18. Start with yourCustomer!
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- 20. Why Focus onan Ideal Customer? • FOMO is telling you NOT to do this. • You must know your Ideal Customer Be er than they Know Themselves
- 21. Why Focus onan Ideal Customer? • “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937) • Compelling > Convincing • People don’t buy from you because they understand what it is you do… but because you understand what they do! !
- 22. Ideal Customer Define ➔Find➔ Compel ➔ Convert
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- 24. Ideal Customer isSituational • There is no Universal definition of Ideal Customer • This is a living, breathing “definition”… you’ll come back to it o en • It is specific to: • Your Situation • Your company / product / offer / campaign
- 25. Ideal Customer -Situational Definition • Define the Situation • Is this for your product, an offer, your business, a new market? • Define the Time Frame • 1, 3, 6 months? • Be Specific
- 26. Ideal Customer -Situational Definition • Know where you are today in the context of this situation • How do you know? • What metric(s) are you measuring?
- 27. Ideal Customer -Situational Definition • Know Where you’re Going (Situational Objective) • How will you know if you’re successful then? • How will you know if you’re on the right track along the way? • Land Grab, User #, Revenue Goal, etc. • You may want to have an idea about what you’re willing to spend to achieve the incremental bump in that metric (CAC, for example).
- 28. Ideal Customer Profile Inputs •Ready • Willing • Able • + Profitable • + Expansion Potential • + Virality
- 29. Ideal Customer Profile KeyInputs Ready • They have a problem they need solved / opportunity to take advantage of • They know they have the problem / opportunity • The problem / opportunity is acute … there’s a sense of urgency you can take advantage of
- 30. Willing • They’re readyto solve that problem by taking action • They’re exploring options to solve that problem • There’s a Catalyst: M&A, Investments, Bankruptcy, hiring/ firing, RFP, etc. Ideal Customer Profile Key Inputs Ideal Customer - Define
- 31. Able • They havethe means to solve the problem • They have the authority to solve the problem Ideal Customer Profile Key Inputs Ideal Customer - Define
- 32. Profitable • This meansit’s cost-effective to get in front of them • On-Boarding & Support • Estimated Lifetime • Buying Cycle / Process Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs
- 33. Expansion Potential • Up-Sell/ Cross-Sell • Potential / Front-load • Immediate ASP Boost • A high CHI/NPS is critical here Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs Ideal Customer - Define
- 34. Virality • $1 CAC/ 2 = $0.50 • Intra & Inter-Company • WOM vs. Use-Based Virality • Of course, ensuring they’re happy is key • Network Effect = Built-in Social Proof • Enterprise Dept vs. SME, Agency vs. Enterprise, etc. Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs
- 35. Would Your IdealCustomer: • Know they’re your ideal customer if they looked at your site? • Feel comfortable using your product or service? • Feel like your service was designed for them? • Tell their friends or co-workers about your product? Ideal Customer Profile Sanity Check #1
- 36. Who’s your Less-Than-IdealCustomer? • Would they think they’re your ideal customer? • Make sure you’re not going where they are! • Then make sure you’re not actively a racting them Ideal Customer - Define Ideal Customer Profile Sanity Check #2
- 37. LOG IN WITHGOOGLE Start Your Free KISSmetrics Trial
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- 39. • Don’t thinklike your customer… think about your customer • Know… • how your customers try and buy products in your category • where they look for information • who they trust • how they consume marketing Ideal Customer Characteristics
- 40. • Customer development •Primary market research (stuff you do yourself) • Secondary market research (stuff other people have done that you get access to) Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
- 41. Talk to yourCustomers & Prospects • Current Customers • Past (Cancelled) Customers • Prospects that didn’t convert from your Free Trial • Those in your nurturing/indoctrination process • Don’t talk to Prospects about this (yet)… focus on converting them Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
- 42. Not all Competitorsare the same • Critical they share the same customers • Same Product Category • Immediately Adjacent to your Product category • Same price/complexity level (or at least the same customers) Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
- 43. How to Findyour Competitors’ Customers • They’re named in testimonials and case studies on the competitor site • They mentioned the app in their LinkedIn profile • They ‘re a member of an app-specific group on LinkedIn • They have a certification from the vendor • Alexa… Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
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- 45. Ask the Customersof your Competitors: • about other competitors they may have evaluated (and why they chose the one they did) • who else they trust in the industry, (consultants, advisors, analysts, etc.) • what blogs they read, if they watch videos, etc. • did they buy direct or through a distributor/VAR/app store Your Competitors’ Ideal Customer
- 46. Digging for Gold… •You’ll learn about analysts, consultants, and associations from whom you can buy secondary research. Protip: you can also use them for primary research • Look for associations your ideal customers belong to – both industry-specific and wider-scope associations – and events (local or national) they a end. • Glean information from the event marketing sites… or actually a end the event, too. Infiltrate their Ecosystem
- 47. Look for Paerns • In bad-guy hacking, this is called the "Watering hole” a ack… go where they are and where they’re most likely to let their guard down because of an implied trust • If everyone I talk to says they read XYZ’s blog or buys research from ABC Firm, then I probably need to figure out a way to piggyback on those folks somehow to get in front of my ideal customer. Social Engineering
- 48. Look for Paerns • Do they read this magazine, or listen to that podcast? Do they go to this event or trust that consultant? Are there ways to use that knowledge to get in front of my Ideal Customer? Ads, Guest Blog Posts, Distribution Deals, Email Drops… • Does it seem like most buy through intermediaries such as VARs or Distributors? Do they seem to use corporate app stores? How can I get my app listed in those corporate stores or be included in distribution deals with VARs? Listen first… act second.
- 49. • The paerns will start to give you insights into how to get in front of your audience or what distribution channels you’ll use • While sometimes the medium is the message, at the very least it will dictate what the message looks like, what it says, what the CTA is, etc. • So there is no “best” distribution channel for all SaaS apps… there are only “best” distribution channels for each Ideal Customer type. Look for Pa erns
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- 51. Speak directly toyour Ideal Customer • “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937) • Having an Ideal Customer in mind will dictate: • the language, images, copy, and design you use • the emotion you invoke or tap into • the sense of urgency you can take advantage of or produce How to Cut Through the Noise
- 52. Based on thechannel, the IC, the situation, offer, etc. • Timely (Example: event planning SaaS) • Congruent w/ catalyst • Doesn’t have to conform to “rules” (except those of the network/partner) • How can we evoke an emotional response, even in a B2B se ing, that’s congruent with the context we’re working within? • This gets their a ention and Compels them to Action Medium is the Message
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- 54. And once hooked,the secret to ge ing them to take action • Continue the narrative from first touch to conversion • Different engagement methods for different cohorts (source a ribution) • Know what steps need to be taken to move them to conversion and orchestrate the process… don’t leave it up to chance • Ask for the sale; make them an offer! Conversion Rate Optimization
- 55. Ideal Customer Define ➔Find➔ Compel ➔ Convert
- 56. 1. Define yourIdeal Customer 2. Understand the conversation already taking place in their mind 3. Figure Out the Best Way to Get In Front of Them (channel) 4. Decide on the “hook” that injects you into that conversation and get’s them to take action (tactic) 5. Continue the narrative through conversion (funnel) Distribution Hacks - Review
- 57. When you dowhat we covered today: • You don’t have to test as much • Testing really is only for optimization • Trial and Error goes away • Even “ugly” designs and bad copy (relatively speaking) can work when highly-targeted The Dirty Li le Secret
- 58. Questions? Lincoln Murphy Managing Director SixteenVenture @lincolnmurphy Dan McGaw Director of Marketing KISSmetrics @danielmcgaw More resources at: h p://sixteenventures.com/kissmetrics
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