Whether you’re looking for your 1st, 10th, or 10,000th customer, finding customers for your product will always be hard. In this presentation, we go over scalable and repeatable user acquisition tactics to get you started! Topics range from digital marketing, SEO, email, partnerships, social and many more. Will is founder of Mission Street, a consulting group providing growth marketing services for US-based startups. Prior to starting Mission Street, Will has spent over 10-years growing startups. Will was the first digital marketer at Dropbox, recently led Growth Marketing at Oscar Health, and held various growth roles at: Twitch TV, eBay and other tech-based startups.

1. Startup lessons:
Customer Acquisition
Will Wong
Mission Street
September 2017

2. Hi, I’m Will
From Oakland, California (next to San Francisco)
Tech + Growth for > 10 years
Built my first website in 1998
Worked with some cool companies…
Head of Growth @Oscar
Head of Global Performance Marketing @Dropbox
SEO Consultant @Twitch
SEM @eBay

3. Today’s talk
1. Acquisition, starting with LTV
2. The ‘Make it Work’ approach
3. Beyond the basics

4. New to Acquisition? Google is your friend
Source: Dave McClure: Startup Metrics for Pirates
Introductory Reading:
● Accounting for User Growth (Social+Capital)
● AdWords Fundamentals (Google)
● Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Moz)
● Customer Acquisition: Sales Funnel (David Skok)
● Customer Acquisition & Monetization (David Skok)
● Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation (Marketo)
● Facebook Ads Best Practices (Facebook)
● Guide to AdWords Account Structure (Wordstream)
● Inbound Marketer’s Guide to SEO and PPC (Marketo)
● Original Marketing Plan for Mint (Mint)
● PPC Task Checklist (PPC Hero)
● SaaS Metrics 2.0 (David Skok)
● SEO Starter Guide (Google)
● Startup Metrics for Pirates (500 Startups)
● What is PPC? (Wordstream)

5. Things startup founders say...

6. “I heard is doing great
with , why aren’t we?
-said every founder

7. Reality: Your
acquisition tactics
will vary
What will work is based on:
● Industry
● Timing
● Stage
● LTV → CAC you can afford
● Budget
● Competition
● Team expertise

8. One thing impacts acquisition: LTV
LTV = Lifetime value = Retention X Monetization X Viral/Network-Effect
WTP = Willingness to Pay = What % of LTV do you want to dedicate to customer acquisition
CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost = Total cost to acquire a customer
CPA = Cost per acquisition = Cost to get someone started in the funnel

9. LTV determines your acquisition tactics
High LTV
High LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers
Low LTV
Low LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers

10. If LTV is high, you have many options
High LTV
High LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers
Low LTV
Low LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers
Expensive options
(paid digital, paid
out-of-home)

11. If low, you’ll have to focus on organic + content
High LTV
High LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers
Low LTV
Low LTV
vs.
same-audience advertisers
Expensive options
(paid digital, paid
out-of-home)
Focus on
organic

12. It’s dangerous to follow competitors with different LTVs
High LTV
same-audience advertisers
Low LTV
same-audience advertisers

13. What do I do if my LTV is low?
What do I do if my CPA is high?

14. Marketing + Product = Best Acquisition
LTV CPA Efficiency
Marketing Improve retention with
● Email marketing
● CRM
● Notifications
● Messaging
Find new channels
Optimize creative + messaging
Optimize bids / price / cost-per-click
Grow organic
Quality content
Brand
Product Build a product that customers will love
Iterate on feedback and data
Landing pages
Funnel optimization
Build products as acquisition drivers

15. “We tried running in the past…
It didn’t work, so we stopped”
-more founder quotes

16. Dropbox Growth: A series of ‘making things work’
Source: Forbes.com
Free → Biz Conversion
B2B Messaging
Digital + Demand Gen
Viral / Referral-based growth

17. Back to basics: What does Dropbox Business Solve
What’s the customer pain? Dropbox solution
USB drives are annoying
FTP and File Servers
are old and clunky
Can’t send large files over email
Multiple editors to a shared file
Eliminated need for FTP, File
Servers, USB Drives, Email for
sharing
Just use Dropbox

18. Ask yourself: Does your website content address your solution to customer pain points?

20. Dedicated conversion flows for every use case

21. +25 to +50%
Boost to visitor → credit-card free trial conversion rate

22. Beyond landing
pages → full funnel
conversion

23. Get in your customer’s head: Why do they say no?

24. +50%
Boost to credit-card trial conversion rate

25. Getting to ‘making it work’

26. Build a test matrix to find the right path
Use Cases Audience Unique Selling Proposition Conversion Path
Send Files
Collaboration
Backup
Legacy
Replacement
Search Keywords
SMB Databases
‘Free’ Users
Facebook Lookalike
Earned Media
Sync
Market Leader
Free Trial
Free Report
Speed Test
Reliability
Messaging
Self-Serve Purchase
Talk to sales
Self-Serve Trial
Talk to reseller

27. Try everything, focus on what works
Use Cases Audience Unique Selling Proposition Conversion Path
Send Files
Collaboration
Backup
Legacy
Replacement
Search Keywords
SMB Databases
‘Free’ Users
Facebook Lookalike
Earned Media
Sync
Market Leader
Free Trial
Free Report
Speed Test
Reliability
Messaging
Self-Serve Purchase
Talk to sales
Self-Serve Trial
Talk to reseller

28. C’mon, really?
There is no silver bullet?

29. Channels come and go. First mover advantage is huge!

30. Different channels work at different stages

31. Wrap up 1. Base acquisition tactics by LTV,
not what you heard
2. For a channel to work,
you need to make it work
3. Effectiveness varies by scale & stage.
Most effective when you’re first.

32. Questions?

33. Thank you!
linkedin.com/in/WilliamWaiWong
/OnMissionStreet
@WilliamWaiWong