April Dunford @aprildunford Marketing Planning
for Startups

Who am I and Why
Should You Care? 5 Startups 4 exits Some Big Companies 9 Product Launches Currently: COO Tulip Retail @aprildunford

Speed is a Key Startup
Strength

Because the Internet tell us
to We like to focus on tactics and tactical execution

We are Drowning in Tactical
Advice So “ultimate” that there are 16M of them! My personal fav

The Cycle of Marketing Meh
Marketing Fashion Assessment Choose Tactics Execute Tactics Measure Results Drop Bad Tactics Where you look at what everyone else is doing.

Fast, Stupid Marketing Can Kill
You

How Do We Pick Better
Tactics in the First Place?

The Exact Target Customer Marketing
Planning Inputs The Offering (And the Value) The Customer Buying Process Tactical Plan Based on the Above

Target Prospect Unique Qualities Pain
Points How They Learn Where they Gather Prospect Knowledge

Product Offering What do we
Do? Alternatives Proof What is our Unique Value? Product Offering

Understand The Buying Process No
Need Need Eval Buy Enjoy Re-new Knowing the cost of not solving the problem Knowing the Value of solving the problem Knowing the value of your solution Why purchase now? Using and enjoy the offering Knowing I can’t do without the offering Current solution good enough Value not compelling Risks too high Not knowing how to evaluate Great but not for me I might change my mind Too much $ Bad service, Bad user experience Not using Decided there was no need Move to other solution Accelerators Friction points

Mapping Tactics To The Buying
Process Buying Stage No Need, Need Eval, Buy Enjoy, Refer, Renew What Problem-Focused Content and Programs Solution-Focused Content and Programs Activation & Engagement-focused Content, Programs Examples Problem-Focused Articles/blog posts, Industry data, trend reports, curated content Solution-focused Articles/ blog posts, webinars, events, case studies, ROI calculators, advertising Support content, How to guides, Best practices guides Forums, User Conferences Where Where prospects are Partly where they are, partly your turf Mainly your turf Purpose Entertain, Educate, Engage Educate, differentiate, move to eval or sell Experience value, create raving fans Action Permission to “market”: likes, follows, newsletter/blog signups Permission to “sell”: give contact info, trial sign-up, purchase Renewals, Referrals

A Better Cycle Document Inputs,
Assumptions Choose Tactics Execute Tactics Measure Results Analyze and Check Assumptions Assumptions on: • Segmentation • Buying Process • Accelerators/