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Uploaded byGoran Candrlic
Rijeka - 27.10.2016 - Startup Marketing
This document provides advice for startup marketing in an environment of constant change. It emphasizes that most startups fail due to not acquiring customers, rather than building products. To succeed, startups must develop a brand, audience, consistency, marketing strategy, great product, and sales processes. They must also generate positive cash flow. The document outlines the importance of defining personas, traction channels, and product-market fit to develop a scalable marketing strategy focused on retention through optimization of funnels and analytics.
Rijeka - 27.10.2016 - Startup Marketing
- 1. Startup Marketing ina world of constant change
- 2. Hello! Goran Candrlic Twitter: @Chande FB:/chande LinkedIn: /gorancandrlic Instagram: /gorancandrlic
- 3. Bragging rightsBuilt 500+websites Managed EUR 50M in online sales Success AutoGlobal, Adria24, Free.com.hr, IntechOpen, SEOCrawler, Kisha Umbrella, GlobalDots Failure Failed to build (to initial vision) @WebinyPlatform Many more :) (test, iterate, rinse & repeat)
- 4. Why Startups Fail? Moststartups don’t fail at building a product. They fail at acquiring customers. - Gabriel Weinberg (DuckDuckGo) 1
- 5. Why Startups Fail? Andfalse thinking: Build it and they will come 2
- 6. Reason? If you arenot a brand - they (customers) do not care. And to build brand you need? ● MONEY!!! ● AUDIENCE!!! ● CONSISTENCY!!! ● BRAND STRATEGY!!! ● GREAT PRODUCT!!! ● MARKETING AND SALES MACHINE!!! And most of all: ● CASH FLOW TO KEEP THE OPERATION GOING! 3
- 7. But lets getback to beginnings... What is a startup? A company that does not know what their product is and who their customers are! Don’t mix it with growth companies (startups that get funded) Investors don’t fund companies based on a vision, but on numbers! 4
- 8. Your goal asa startup Is to find a product / market fit Bullshit wording for: ● Knowing what customers will pay for! ● Creating a scalable sales and marketing strategy & processes ● Creating a positive cash-flow ● Creating an operation with LTV > CAC (“customer lifetime value” is larger than “customer acquisition cost” with positive cash flow (so you don’t burn money before another investment round)) 5
- 9. WRONG This can beoptimized. Don’t waste time on crappy prototypes. 6
- 10. But MVPs KindaSuck on the contrary to what everyone is evangelizing… (like bullshit “Fail harder” mantra) Not applicable to “copy-cats” (just copy / scale) With “copy-cats” you “just” need low CAC, low operating costs, high retention *** MVP: Minimum Viable product 7
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- 12. How to knowwhat is your EVP? You have a pretty good idea what you want to build You don’t know yet if people will buy it You don’t know yet if there is a scalable marketing / sales process (no audience, no evangelism, no free traffic, no press, no nothing) You don’t know yet how big is your CAC or LTV 9
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- 14. ...but don’t worry 90%of startups fail unless you are totally lucky and you create a product that a lot of people want, that your competitors suck, that there is no regulation, that there are high barriers for competitors to enter the market... 11
- 15. ...but why (again) Moststartups compete in disruptive (or saturated) markets that means either they are gambling on if the products in this niche will be commoditized by technology advancement (new tech + first mover advantage + branding) - very high barrier to entry or they are innovating in saturated or mature markets where they need to differentiate (brand) / create demand / solve previously non-adressed need (niche) 12
- 16. Examples Auto-industry: commoditization ofpersonal transport Banking: global commerce and exchange need intermediary (BitCoin can change that) Telecom: commoditization of communication Google: commoditization of search & explosion of content (new channel) + advertising Apple: consumer electronics and PC + convergence of hw+sw+mobile Microsoft: commoditization of personal computing Zappos: using new channel for customer-service in segment Amazon: commoditization of ecommerce + development and optimization of workflows PayPal: easy online payments Facebook: personal (social) network commoditization + big data Skype: commoditization of global voice communication 13
- 17. What’s next? Internet ofthings (hyper-connected devices / programs) Mass-commoditization of consumer goods based on tech (new materials, processes) Automation and scalability of manufacturing processes (3d printing) New business processes New marketing processes New sales processes Consumers AND businesses have a variety of options Innovate or differentiate! 14
- 18. What’s driving the change? Standardizationof IPv6, providing vastly more IP addresses The mainstreaming of cloud and “fog” computing (fog computing is Cisco’s phrase for smart things, distributed widely, reaching up to the cloud) Pervasive collaboration of people and professionals via technology The explosion of apps for everything The trend of app developers to push intelligence from the app layer to the network layer, or the cloud Growing big data and analytics Ever-increasing network capacity at higher speeds and ever- cheaper rates The consumerization of enriched experiences with things Nanotechnology Explosion of communication touchpoints!!! 15
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- 21. So how todo startup marketing? 1. Develop your personas 2. Develop your traction channels 3. APPLY FINDINGS TO YOUR PRODUCT (marketing-driven product development)! 4. Scale 5. Rinse & Repeat 18
- 22. Personas Never skip thisstep! 19
- 23. Traction channels Viral Marketing PublicRelations (PR) Unconventional PR Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Social and Display Ads Offline Ads Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Content Marketing Email Marketing Engineering as Marketing Target Market Blogs Business Development (BD) Sales Affiliate Programs Existing Platforms Trade Shows Offline Events Speaking Engagements Community Building 20
- 24. Bullseye Framework ● 3channels ● 5 channels ● 11 channels Test, rinse, repeat Scale channel Move to the next after channel is saturated CPA (cost per acquisition) or CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) vs LTV (customer lifetime value) Marginal CPA 21
- 25. Follow these non bullet-proofsteps 1. Have an idea of product / problem you solve 2. Develop personas (who will use this product) 3. Develop user stories / use cases / how to interact (MOST IMPORTANT) 4. Find feature set (remove features) 5. Know their affinity, where to market to them, how to market to them (research your channels), how to scale sales+marketing, how big is the market (SECOND MOST IMPORTANT) 6. Develop canvas 22
- 26. Follow these non bullet-proofsteps 1. Develop brand strategy 2. Build product (Embed Marketing & Sales processes INTO your product) 3. Launch 4. Optimize (basic optimization) of your funnels 5. Acquisition 6. Activation 7. Retention 8. Revenue 9. Referral 10.A/B test (and never stop) 11.Scale 23
- 27. Funnels will helpyou 24
- 28. Scale your channels Learnwhen to scale (only after product / customer development) Scale only after additional unit sold is costing less in CAC. If CAC grows with each unit > optimize 25
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- 32. Growth Hacking Bullshit overhypedword for: Finding the customer sweet-spot and low CAC (and low marginal CAC) in non-saturated acquisition channels Using “network effect” in hyper-connected world with 3C (constantly-connected consumer) Use technology / engineering to fuel new ways of customer acquisition 28
- 33. What if somethinggoes wrong? Step 1: Pivot (business model, channels, pricing) Success? Yes - good for you No - give up (or pivot again, but chances are you made a wrong turn somewhere) 29
- 34. The Holy Grailof Marketing 30
- 35. Goal of online marketing Defineand implement online marketing strategy ● Aligned with overall marketing strategy ● Brand ● Message ● Goals, KPIs, Targets Drive traffic ● Owned ● Inbound (earned) ● Outbound (paid) Drive leads / sales ● Conversion ● Scoring ● Nurturing ● Analyze, track, improve 31
- 36. Online marketing strategy ● Mission ●Vision ● Branding ● Value Proposition (Company) ● Communication framework ● Market conditions (SWOT, PEST) 32
- 37. Online marketing strategy Product ● Product/ market fit ● Value proposition ● USP ● Key Selling Points ● Cross-sells & Upsells ● Pricing Acquisition channels ● Owned (website, mailing lists, other properties & audiences) ● Earned (SEO, Social, Content, Word of mouth, Reviews, Referrals) ● Paid (PPC, Display, Production, SEO, Remarketing) 33
- 38. Online marketing strategy Lead/Sale-generation &Funnels ● Conversion Rate Optimization ● Landing page optimization ● A/B testing Retention ● Action / non-action driven! ● Loyalty program ● Customer support ● Over-deliver Analytics Framework ● Main goal: calculate CAC & LTV per channel ● Include costs from all marketing and sales activities ● Use cohort analysis to fuel growth and scalability 34
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- 50. In a nutshell ●Product market fit ● Know your audience (personas) ● Build scalable sales & marketing process ● Know your funnels ● Build EVP product ● Focus on retention more than acquisition or revenue (if you can) ● Test everything (Conversion Rate Optimization) ● Invest in your Brand ● Track smart things - not vanity metrics ● Measure inbound vs outbound channels ● (Don’t) ask customers what they want ● KISS (Keep it simple stupid!) 46
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