Overview of Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers. Highlights favorite quotes and insightful pieces throughout the chapters.

1. A Review toTraction
A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
Compiled by: Austin Walker

2. StartupsUse
theSame
Channels
 Most companies only use top-of-mind channels
 PR
 SEO
 Using the same channels means having to deal with competition
 Need to use which channels are appropriate for company
 Primary research will help to determine which channels are
appropriate

3. Bullseye
Targeting
 Brainstorm
 Research success/unsuccess of companies’ marketing in industry
 Consider how successful the product can be
 Rank
 Use bullseye to determine how successful each strategy can be
 Prioritize
 Determine “inner circle” – which channels would be most successful
now
 Test
 Use cheap methods to determine how successful a potential channel
may be

4. Bullseye
Targeting
cont’d
 Focusing
 Wringing the most successful channel of all the customers you can
 Repeat!

5. Traction
Thinking
 The 50% Rule
 Entrepreneurs are passed up byVCs because they’re stubborn
 “Viral marketing strategy” is arrogant
 Simultaneous Product Development andTraction are of equal
importance
 Getting responses from a customer want is valuable and free
feedback

6. Traction
Testing cont’d
 The Law of Shitty Click-Throughs
 The longer a marketing campaign runs, the more it starts looking
like a campaign only about click-throughs
 Shake-up marketing to ensure that competitors aren’t in the same
space and that click-through rates aren’t becoming the
measurement
 Optimize through A/BTesting
 (A) Control Group
 (B) Experimental Group
 Measures effectiveness of changes in variables
 Always Have aTraction Goal

7. Viral
Marketing
 Going viral means every customer you acquire brings in at least
one more
 Viral marketing:
 Word of Mouth
 Inherent virality
 Collaboration
 Communications
 Incentivize
 Embedded
 Leverage socal Networks

8. Public
Relations
 Traditionally refers to company communication with the public of
all kinds
 Your story must be compelling gin order to get people to react
emotionally
 Start small
 Dollar shave club: 12000 customers with a $5000 video.

9. SocialAds
 Work especially well for demand generation and building interest
for new customers
 The goal of social ads is typically awareness-oriented, not
conversion-oriented
 Social ads give companies the opportunity to start a conversation

10. OfflineAds
 Taking advantage of unused (blue ocean) ad space: remnant
advertising
 TV ads are more often used as branding mechanisms
 $350,000
 Later approach when looking to gain additional traction

11. Content
Marketing
 If I would have spent money on advertising that would be it. If you
invest in content, it gets picked up by Google. People find it, they
share it, and it refers customers almost indefinitely
 Women found Eli Manning more attractive thanTom Brady.
WHAT?
 OKCupid and Unbounce wrote controversial posts to gain traffic
and get people engaged.

12. E-mail
Marketing
 Personalized e-mails sent to customers whom have already
engaged in a product/shown interest work best
 Lifecycle e-mails – where the email cycle begins when a customer
signs up for a product and ends when the customer becomes
active.
 Vero, Customer.io
 One of the best channels to surprise and delight customers

13. Engineering as
Marketing
 Taking a product and making it better, then offering it to potential
customers: HubSpot and their marketing grader (complements
their product)
 Micro-sites to produce engagement and help consumers learn
more: hopefully lead them to the answer – your product
 Provides something of true value for free, with no strings attached

14. Targeting
Blogs
 Directly approach writers of blogs and have them write stories
about your startup, targeting different segments
 Followed through, finding which blogs got the most clicks
 Great way to get your first wave of customers

15. Business
Development
 Primarily focused on exchanging value through partnerships,
whereas sales focuses on exchanging dollars for a product
 Engagement helps both parties involved
 Good BD deals align with your company and product strategy and
are focused on critical product and distribution milestones.
 Not every partnership works; build a pipeline of additional deals.

16. Sales
 Process of generating leads, qualifying them, and converting them
into paying customers.
 The best customers are the ones who know they have a problem
and are actively seeking a solution: give it to them
 Qualify customers through the sales funnel.

17. Affiliate
Programs
 Pay people or companies to perform a certain action
 ClickBank; Commission Junction; Affiliate.com, Pepperjam,
ShareASale, Neverblue, Clickbooth,
 Recruit partners from your customer base or people who have
access to a group o customers you want to reach.
 Flat fees for conversions are the simplest way

18. TradeShows
 The best way to decide whether to attend an event is to visit as a
guest and do a walkthrough the year before.
 Get people opinion to decide whether the trade show is worth
your time
 Preparation will determine your success
 Success comes from the relationships you build and the
prospective

19. Offline Events
 Attend a conference, engage the users there
 Build your own conference and build a reputation around the
product you offer
 Build a group and meet with them regularly
 Throw a party!

20. Speaking
Engagements
 Spreads the story or message behind your company/promotion
 You have to get the attention of event organizers to land speaking
engagements
 Start by speaking for free at co-working spaces, nonprofits, and
smaller conferences or events

21. Community
Building
 Involves investing in the connections among your users, fostering
those relationships and helping them bring more people into your
startup’s circle
 Helpful to have an already existing audience built up
 Need to have a mission if you want to build an awesome
community
 I love they try to get you to join their forum (build their audience)