entrepreneur week startup marketing 101

Startup Marketing

April Dunford @aprildunford

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My Background

• Big Companies• IBM (InfoSphere launch to 250M organic, followed by 5

acquisition)• Siebel (WW Marketing Financial Services $800M)• Nortel (head of incubation)

• Startups• Janna Systems ($1.4B exit to Siebel Systems)• DataMirror (exit to IBM)• Infobright• Watcom (exit to Powersoft, Sybase, SAP)

• In-Between (as of a few weeks ago)• VP Marketing, Solarsoft ($100M revenue, roll-up)

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PhasesPre-product Early

Adopters Scale

Preparation• Content• Email gathering• Relationships

Tuning• Ecosystem• Economics• Pipeline Tuning• Visibility Foundation•Message

Investment• Channels• Lead Gen• PR• Staff

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Pre-Product Marketing

• Starting a dialogue on your point of view - Blog, articles, ebook, white papers, etc.

You are an expert in your domain

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Pre-Product Marketing

• List building: Landing pages, widgets/badges & rewards, contests

• Relationships: prospect, media, influencer

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PhasesPre-product Early

Adopters Scale

Preparation• Content• Email gathering• Relationships

Tuning• Ecosystem• Economics• Pipeline Tuning• Visibility Foundation•Message

Investment• Channels• Lead Gen• PR• Staff

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Before You Scale

• Ecosystem

• Economics

• Pipeline Tuning

• Messaging

• Visibility Foundation

Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe.

Abraham Lincoln

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Ecosystem & Economics

•Training/Documentation

•Customer Service and Support

•OEM software

•Pricing

•Sales Channels and Distribution

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Pipeline Tuning

Maximize the effect of every $ spent• Key metrics and A/B testing your brains

out:• Website• Offers• Signup process• Trial/free version

• Messaging (we’ll come back to this)

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Visibility Foundation

How do non-users observe that others

are using?Product features

Shareable content

Referrals and Incentives

Reviews/Awards

References/success marketing

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3 Steps to Good Messaging

Answer these questions:

1. What the heck is it?

2. Is it for me?

3. Why buy it from you?

(In this order!!)

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Paris Hilton Marketing

beautiful but makes no

sense

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What You Do?

Netflix – Watch as many movies as you want for one low monthly price.

SalesForce.com – the world’s favorite CRM software as a service.

Wikipedia – A free encyclopedia built collaboratively using Wiki software.

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You do WHAT?

Innovative products and services that power the network economy. (Sun Microsystems)

Helps companies optimize and transform their dynamic business network to accelerate revenues and reduce costs. (Sterling Commerce )

Personalize the Internet! (pretty much every B2C web startup)

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Step 1: What the Heck is it?

Keep it brief

Use simple language

Put it front and center

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Segmentation is not a Dirty Word

Market to Everyone, Sell to No One

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Explicit Targeting is Powerful

ThinkGeek: Selling geek t-shirts for programmers, linux

hackers, and open source geeks.

VS

Customink: your t-shirt expert for teams, schools, companies

and individuals.

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Go Deep – The Janna Example

CRM for Investment bankers:

• Use cases, day in the life of a banker

• Demos, example data

• Whitepapers, articles, opt-ed

• Sales Enablement: the IB dictionary

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Stories are Powerful

Go ahead April, tell them a story

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PhasesPre-product Early

Adopters Scale

Preparation• Content• Email gathering• Relationships

Tuning• Ecosystem• Economics• Pipeline Tuning• Visibility Foundation•Message

Investment• Channels• Lead Gen• PR• Staff

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Invest

• Sales/Distribution channels

• lead generation – advertising, SEO, webinars, promotions, telemarketing, mail, trial/download, events, success marketing and content, content, content

• Marketing staff

• PR (when it makes sense)

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Moving into New Segments

Timing is Important

Validate New Assumptions

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You can Lose Product/Market Fit

Markets aren’t Static

Customer Service

Don’t Kill the Love

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PhasesPre-product Early

Adopters Scale

Preparation• Content• Email gathering• Relationships

Tuning• Ecosystem• Economics• Pipeline Tuning• Visibility Foundation•Message

Investment• Channels• Lead Gen• PR• Staff

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Thanks!

@aprildunford

aprildunford@gmail.com

RocketWatcher.com