User Acquisition Bootcamp for Startups
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User acquisition. It's what it all boils down to, isn't it? If you're not consistently feeding your sales funnel and seeing consistent -- and sustainable -- growth then it's time to think seriously about your user acquisition strategy. In this presentation from Peter Mansfield from CMO. LA (www.cmo.la) and Early Growth Financial Services (www.earlygrowthfinancialservices.com), you'll get the tools and knowledge you need to optimize your user acquisition (on a tiny or non-existent budget!!). Takeaways include: - using content to drive traffic - email marketing best practices - PR: yes or no? - calculating customer acquisition costs (CAC) - matching up CAC with the lifetime value of a client (LTV) - key metrics relevant to user acquisition - and more!
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User Acquisition Bootcamp for Startups
- 1. User acquisition (made a little less hard!)
- 2. The goal of this session: Show you some tools and ideas to optimize your user acquisition (on a tiny or non-existent budget!!)
- 3. About me: Consultant CMO and adviser for startups Started Mansfield + Associates in 1992 Helped clients build an aggregate market value of close to $5 billion Played a founder's role in successful startups including Brand3 (sold to American Express), PropertyBridge (sold to MoneyGram). Wallaby Financial (sold to BankRate) Supported marketing and fund-raising programs with VCs and angels for over 100 companies
- 4. About me: Ways I help fast growth companies Mentor Consultant CMO in a Box Co- founder
- 5. User acquisition is like sex for the British: Everyone talks about it. Nobody really knows how to do it. Everyone thinks everyone else is doing it. So everyone claims they are doing it...
- 6. Where do you start?
- 7. Gender? Age? Income? Geography? Interests?Cars? Housing? Pets? Idols? Fears?Aspirations? Religious?Clothes? Intelligence? Conservative?Favoritecolors? Role models? Entertainment? Know your user
- 8. Go where your users go.... Forums Facebook/LinkedIn groups Meetups
- 9. Know your product (and how you hope people will engage with it) Ready for prime time? Customer validation? Support resources? Videos, ZenDesk, FAQs etc. Engagement strategy? Drip campaign Partners prepped? Feedback loops?
- 10. Get the user experience right Every step in the process, from requesting an invitation to the social signup, builds an emotional connection to the user. http://goo.gl/G4l2v
- 11. Get the product right and focus on community Instagram had less than a dozen employees that focused on perfecting a product that their users loved, turning millions of customers into powerful advocates.
- 12. Know your funnel Acquisition: How do users find you? On boarding: Do users have a great first experience? Engagement: Do users come back? Loyalty: True love?
- 13. Calculating user acquisition costs (CAC) What is CAC? The cost of your sales and marketing divided by the number of customers acquired
- 14. Match CAC with lifetime value (LTV) Less than 1:1 Prep your resume 1:1 You’re losing money from every acquisition 3:1 The perfect level. You have a thriving business and a solid business model 4:1 Great news but you’re under investing and could be growing faster LTV:CAC Prognosis
- 15. Other key metrics Not so important: • Registered users • Downloads • Page views Important: • Engaged users • Repeat vs first-time actions • Time between actions • Repeat action probability
- 16. AdWords Cost Per Click Rises 40% Between 2012 and 2014
- 17. So, assuming you haven’t raised $50M, what the hell can you do to get users?
- 18. How do you feed the funnel? SEO/SEM Paid search/Online ads App store optimization Email Social/content/viral Affiliate PR Partners Growth hacking
- 20. Using content to drive sign ups “We focused on building out a unique personal finance blog, very content-rich, that spoke to a young professional crowd that we felt was being neglected. The blog became #1 in personal finance, and drove traffic to the app. Our app didn’t have a high viral coefficient but we had content that was. Our infographics and popular articles became regular hits on Digg, Reddit, etc.”
- 21. Compelling content can come in many forms Blog Webinar eBook Video Opinion pieces Case studies Podcasts Papers/reports Syndicatedarticles
- 22. Focus area: SEO
- 23. Cover the SEO bases http://explorer.cognitiveseo.com/ https://positionly.com https://moz.com/
- 24. Build killer websites and/or landing pages (and test, test, test!) • A compelling image and/or video • An attention-grabbing headline • A strong value proposition (the benefits) • Social proof or an endorsement • A strong call to action
- 25. SEO action plan Diagnostics: monthly Key metrics: weekly Keywords/co ntent: weekly Outreach, link building: daily SEO standards/co mpliance: monthly • Numberofvisitsfromthetopsearchengines • Whichkeywordsaredrivingtraffic,andhowyoursite isrankingoneach • Whattermsdoyoucompetitorsrankhighforand why? • Compareperformanceondesktopsearchesvs. mobile • Compareyourwebsite’sperformanceoverthepast severalmonth
- 26. Focus area: Pay per click
- 27. Pay per click (PPC) • Choosebetweendisplay(banner)adsandsearchads. • Banneradsaregraphicalandappearonrelevantwebsites. • SearchadssitbesideGooglesearchresults.Bidbasedonsearchkeywords. Banner ads & AdWords: • PromoteyourFacebookpage,andalsopromotelandingpagesoutsideofFacebook. • Disadvantage:restrictionsonadart,copy,andURLs. Facebook Ads: • Floatingadsarethenewpopups. • Adshoveroverthecurrentwindow. • OfferafreeeBookorrecordedwebinar. Floating Ads:
- 30. Go viral 33,000,000 views 19,000,000 views
- 31. How do you help a video go viral? http://goo.gl/C7z1Yj Make it: • Short • Likeable • Sharable
- 32. In other words avoid this...
- 33. Focus area: PR
- 34. Get coverage in the right spots +40% sign ups in one week
- 35. How PR helps user acquisition Support user acquisition goals Coverage Awareness Leads Speaking slots Awards
- 37. So many social channels– Where should you focus? • FacebookisagoodwaytogeneratetrafficFacebook • Perfectthefrequencyofpromotionalcontent,andTwittercangeneratetrafficTwitter • LinkedInisnotusuallya significantsourceoftraffic.It’sbestforraisingbrand awarenessLinkedIn • ThoughnotasgoodasFacebookandTwitter,Google+canbeanoteworthysource oftrafficGoogle+ • Ifyoupromoteyourlinkwellinthevideodescriptionandhaveengagingvideo content,itcanbeagoodsourceoftrafficYouTube • HastobetherightkindofproductandaudienceInstagram/Snapchat • Pinterestcanbea goodsourceoftraffic.Adda“PinIt”buttontoimagesonyour websitetoencourageengagementPinterest
- 38. Great, low cost tools to help your social campaign
- 40. Get creative with emails, but try to keep it simple
- 41. Tailoryour campaigns: Segmentation allows for more personal messages Review click-throughs, bounces, and other metrics to measure success Get feedback on email frequency, content, and delivery method Use automationtools to the fullest Combine drip marketing with segmentation, social media tools, and CRM integration Email marketing, drip marketing, lifecycle emails,autoresponders
- 44. Get content right: Title,description, icon, screenshots Pick the right category Generate rave reviews: Pluginslike Appirater can help App store optimization starting points https://goo.gl/08KW64https://goo.gl/EUJPrq
- 45. Getting ahead in the app stores
- 46. Did you forget growth hacking?
- 47. Scratching the surface on growth hacking https://goo.gl/c2dHnm https://goo.gl/5gc07p
- 49. Finding partners to help you carry the load? Synergistic products? Similaruserbase? Trackrecordof partnershipdeals? Goodacquirer?
- 50. 30 second summary: • Don’t need Superbowl ads to acquire customers • You do need to be diligent • Takes a mix of tactics depending on your target • There are lots of good tools to help • Don’t be reticent in asking for help
- 51. Where to go next Peter Mansfield: peter@cmo.la Scheduleafreeone-on-onemarketing session: Calendly.com/petermansfield
Editor's Notes
- One word of warning – I’m going to go through the deck at breakneck speed because there’s a lot to cover even given that we are only going to scratch the surface. Just to remind you the deck will be available to everyone, and we are offering everyone on the webinar a free one on one session so we can take a look at your particular opportunity. One other thing – some of you have solutions that are targeted to consumers, others to businesses. This webinar takes a relatively generic approach, although it’s a tad slanted towards app developers with consumer target audiences.
- Here’s the abbreviated version
- Now that I’ve dragged us all into the gutter, where do you start when it comes to developing a user acquisition program?
- Before dive into the tactics that you can employ to get users it would be good to look at some of the fundamental elements and metrics that you should have in place. First stop here is to know your user.
- To start to understand how well your product meets the needs of your target audiences you need to engage with them as actively as possible. That could be online in forums that relate to your product. Or it could be at meetups where your prospects may be congregating. You can also try websites like Beta List or Killer Startups. They feature multiple new apps each day.
- Starting a blog requires work but if you become a thought leader in your space it is very valuable for driving traffic. One tactic is to try guest blogging and write for another publication with an audience, mentioning your startup in the byline (or tying it in). This is most commonly used for products in social media, marketing tools and SaaS companies. Find blogs relevant to what you’re building. Leo Widrich succeeded with many of these strategies at Buffer. Content is all about creating value for your readers.SlideShare presentations seem to rank so high in Google. For example the musician startup could create “Ten ways that musicians can find new venues” and put together some actionable content that drives them to their product.
- Diagnostics covers things like 404 pages or faulty backlinks. Every week you should update your site with the latest keywords On a daily basis look to engage with other companies and individuals through Twitter Trade organizations Business directories LinkedIn discussions / groups On a monthly basis it’s important to look at all the people contributing content to make sure it meets your standards – photos, graphics etc have the right meta data.
- A great way to build a user base is to create a viral loop around something related and interesting that leads the visitor to check out your product and then share it with their friends. Sometimes it’s an especially interesting blogpost
- A great way to build a user base is to create a viral loop around something related and interesting that leads the visitor to check out your product and then share it with their friends. Sometimes it’s an especially interesting blogpost
- A great way to build a user base is to create a viral loop around something related and interesting that leads the visitor to check out your product and then share it with their friends. Sometimes it’s an especially interesting blogpost
- Tailor your campaigns: The more segmented your list is, the more personal your messages can be Review click-throughs, bounces, and other metrics to measure success Get feedback when determining email frequency, content, and delivery method Use automation tools to the fullest Combine drip marketing with segmentation, social media tools, and CRM integration
- Ask loyal users to rate you. Appirater is a class that you can drop into any iPhone app that will help remind your users to review your app on the App Store.
- process for acquiring and engaging users combining traditional marketing and analytical skills with product development skills.
- The all time great growth hacking example -- How Air b nb scraped Craig’s List and harvested new listings.
- One of the areas that you’ll find in the MOZ growth hacking article is ‘partner distributions’. This is one part of partnering – finding other organizations that can help you acquire users.
- process for acquiring and engaging users combining traditional marketing and analytical skills with product development skills.