reach hacking: strategic marketing for startups

August 13, 2013

Reach Hacking: Strategic Marketing for Startups

2

Blake Robinson - @blake

Dir, Social Strategy & Development, @Annalect

Israel Mirsky - @israelmirsky

Global Managing Dir, Social & Performance, @Annalect

Margaret Francis - @margaretfrancis

VP, Social Products, @SalesForce

Marshall Kirkpatrick - @marshallk

CEO, @GetLittleBird

GET READY.

WHAT IS MARKETING?

Marketing

mar·ket·ing [mahr-ki-ting]

Noun

Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling the product or service. It is a critical business function for attracting customers.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?Scrappy startups vs. Big budget Marketing

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups measure in silos.

Agencies analyze relationships cross platform and cross channel.

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups have one or two people working on marketing.

Agencies manage experts executing coordinated marketing initiatives on a international scale – and establish consensus among the many global clients who must weigh in

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups will need to focus on optimizing one or two things against a small number of metrics.

Agencies optimize entire portfolios.

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups will be identifying swings in online conversion metrics.

Agencies optimize metrics across both online and offline initiatives.

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups deal with marketing budgets in the tens to hundreds of thousands.

Agencies deal in the millions and the problems are different, growing exponentially as higher numbers of products, competitors, etc., are added

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Agencies are working toward predictive measurement and analytics using all of these factors.

Startups utilize reactive analytics… but that’s OK.

BE PROMOTION WORTHY

Promotion

pro·mo·tion /prəˈmōSHən/

Noun

Activity that supports the furtherance of a cause, venture, or aim.

The publicization of a product, organization, or venture to increase sales or public awareness.

Synonyms

advancement - preferment - rise

BE PROFESSIONAL

Worst.Website.Ever.

Unless you founded Blogger and/or Twitter.

BE SUCCINCT

Be upfront with your value proposition

Product name and explanation

Learn more about the product and/or signup right from the front page

Three step explanation of functionality. Got it.

YOUR ADDRESS MATTERS

Mogulus! What does it mean?!

MOST POWERFUL ON THE INTERNET!

Oh.Mogulus is now Livestream? That makes more sense.

YOUR SOCIAL ADDRESSES MATTER

The startup says exactly what it does.

Its social presences are clearly named.

COLLECT CONTACTABLE ADDRESSES

BE CONTACTABLE

TOOLS: Putting contacts to use

Nimble

Contactually

Email Tagging: Tout

DESIGN MATTERS

A design lesson from Little Bird

Before

After

Contactable

Descriptive

Succinct

SOLID SOLUTIONSDesign on the cheap

99designs

dribbble

GET SET…

IF YOU BUILD IT… THEY STILL MIGHT NOT COME

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Don’t sell what you can make.Make what you can sell.

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

Start with your Business Model

http://businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas

CHOOSING YOUR OBJECTIVES

Set a goal

• Find users / customers: Get 100 legitimate prospects in your email list

• Prepare to raise money: Target 10 firms and their principals/ analysts/ associates

• Connect with influencers: Get 10 relevant people following you

• Network with peers: Connect with 10 people in your field. Establish a relationship

ANALYZING YOUR OBJECTIVES

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgreg/446061432/

Analytics are the measurement of movement toward your business goals.

A good metric is

Clear, comparable ratios

Tied to your business model

Actionable, not vain

Correlated or causal

Leading or Lagging

Comparable ratios: think about a car

• Clear: You know 60MPH is twice as fast as 30MPH– In a country, speed limits and mileage are well

understood– Kilometers are conveniently decimal; miles map to

hours

• Rates: Miles travelled is good; miles per hour is better; accelerating or decelerating changes your gas pedal

• Business model: You can measure “MPH divided by speeding tickets” as a metric of “driving fast without losing my license”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roryfinneren/65729247

A few words on causality.

http://www.rvca.com/anp/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/57226_07+proof+1a+hb+beach+day.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3768753408/tt0073195

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapungo/2287237966

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25159787@N07/3766111564

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheressteve/3284532080

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wtlphotos/1086968783

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuttermonkey/57096884

http://www.flickr.com/photos/germanuncut77/3785152581

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fasteddie42/2421039207

Correlated CausalTwo variables that change in similar ways, perhaps because they’re linked to something else.

An independent factor that directly impacts a dependent one.

Summer

Ice creamconsumption

DrowningCorrelated

Causa

l Causal

Leading LaggingNumber today that shows metric tomorrow—makes the news.

Historical metric that shows how youre doing—reports the news.

If it can’t changeyour behavior, thenit’s a…

badmetric.ht

tp://

ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/pho

tos/

circ

asas

sy/7

8581

5567

6/

IF YOU CAN ONLY MEASURE A FEW THINGS

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

In a startup, the purpose of analytics is to iterate to a product/market fit before the money runs out.

Hotmailwas a database company

Flickrwas going to be an MMO

Twitterwas a podcasting company

Autodeskmade desktop automation

Paypalfirst built for Palmpilots

Freshbookswas invoicing for a web design firm

Wikipediawas to be written by experts only

Mitelwas a lawnmower company

Most startups don’t know what they’ll be when they grow up.

IF YOU CAN ONLY MEASURE A FEW THINGS

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

• As a startup, you must measure growth• A growth rate of 5% per week is good,

7% is very good, more than 7% is excellent.

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

But what kind of growth should you be measuring?

Kevin Costner is a lousy entrepreneur.

Startups and smaller initiatives should consider measuring the following:

• Revenue• Conversions• Uniques• Shares of content or product• Engagement with your content or

products

(PRACTICA)

REACH HACKING 101: Owned

Owned

• Research TW & FB hashtags relevant to your company• Create and circulate content using the same hashtags• Cross post: TW, FB, Tumblr• Comment on relevant blogs only where you add to the

conversation– Don’t shill– Add links to other relevant conversations, not just your own site

• Follow everyone back, to start

Twitter now has analytics. Use them to perfect your messaging.

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD CONTENT

Content Marketing

PolerStuff has a YouTube

Channel, a Tumblr blog…

Content Marketing

…and an Instagram feed

REACH HACKING 201:Earned

• Follow everyone back, to start – Use lists to filter noise based on your research

• Go interact with the people most like the ones you want to reach.– Thank them for the follow. DM/ Email/ Comment is fine – Reach out to them, start interacting

Earned

• Attend in person events and carry a card with with all your info on it. Social is not just FB. It’s “network” in all dimensions

• Research all the people who sign up for your list, to follow you, who comment on your FB page or blog or whatever – Run them through LinkedIn & find out who they are – Try Topsy, Little Bird, to see who the influential accounts are

similar to the ones that follow you.

Earned

REACH HACKING 201:Paid

Paid

• Use promoted products from Twitter & Facebook to narrowly target campaigns that are highly, highly relevant – Have a clear call to action– Link back to that site– Few hundred dollars in media spend

• Critical audience and awareness building tool• Look for domains in GA and cultivate contacts at those

companies • Search advertising on category keywords is easy to set

up. Focus on your differentiators

AFFORDABLE TOOLS FOR A COMPETITIVE EDGE

Google Analytics: Learn it well.

Recorded Future: Know your market

Topsy: Know what topics to target.

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Little Bird: Know who to target.

Bitly: Sharing content is just the start. Always be tracking to understand what happens to the content you share.

Simply Measured: To understand your owned properties.

How to get (a lot of) press coverage for your startup, initiative, etc.

117

Step 1. Make a list of people you want to cover your launch

• Pick some obvious ones• Pick some non-obvious ones• Think of a couple of people at specific publications• Too many is better than not enough

118

Step 2. Prepare your materials

• Company story, value proposition • Founders’ backgrounds• Target market and use cases• Competitive differentiation• Business model• Meaningful words of support from credible people• Graphic assets (logo, screenshots)

Now go rewrite all that stuff as bullet points, in half as many words.

119

Step 3. Reach out to your list

• Email them• Ask if they’d like info about your startup under embargo

until 9:00 AM PST Tuesday next week• Tell them only thematic info until they say “Yes, I would

like to learn more about that.”

120

Step 4. Brief them

• Tell them: – your background– why you started the company– tell them how you make money– show them a demo, answer their questions– different people like different things

Focus on a bright line to cross, typically moving from private to public

121

FAQ

• Do I need to hire a PR agent?• Should I offer exclusives?• Are embargoes respected?

• Will anyone respond to my emails?

Maybe.

123

People respond to my emails.

• Why?

• Because I...• * have a history of adding value to their lives• * am likable and interesting • * evidence thus suggests that I will deliver

interesting, likable value next time we talk.

124

Be someone who has added value in the past

• Little Bird can help.

• We’ll help you figure out which leaders in your field are people that other leaders pay attention to.

• And we’ll make it easier than ever for you to listen to them too.

125

After you listen to them, you can respond.

• Respond intelligently and you’ll become a person who has responded intelligently to them in the past.

126

Technology will not get you out of work.

• You can do this with elbow grease, time and smarts. It’s not easy. (Little Bird only makes it easier, you still have to work at it.)

• Or you could be a needy stranger who emails busy people out of the blue. It’s up to you.

Not all press is good press…

128

Don’t send 1,000 emails http://gawker.com/5992733/how-to-become-a-teen-millionaire-be-an-insufferable-startup-brat

129

Let this not be your TechCrunch debut

130

And do not quote your mother.

• “This is the third attempt by the company in the last two weeks to reach out to your U.S. staff and get your attention with an exclusive.

• [XXXX] is a legendary figure in the world of Asian personal computing..He was a pal of Steve Jobs when Jobs was first brooding about touch tech and pad computing…He is now preparing a broader assault on the US apps market in the Fall. You don’t seem to know him. You don’t seem to care.

• Let’s give it one last shot, shall we?

• We are offering you an opportunity to meet them. We are offering you an advance glimpse at what they will do in September. No one is demanding that you love what they might tell you. But we are baffled and bewildered at why you don’t seem to value that!”

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/18/urgent-for-alexia-and-eldon/

Perfect your presentation

Use an email tracking service like BananaTag to understand what emails work and hone your messaging.

STARTING FROM ZERO WITH MARSHALL K

Step 1: Find good people and websites on the internet

Step 2: Read their content when they publish it

Step 3: Get your house in order

Step 4: Respond to what people post online, focus on adding value

Ways to add value: a. be first b. be best, c. bring resources together d. be funny

Step 5: Create your own original content for others to follow

Wash, rinse, repeat. Hustle harder. Take risks. Meet people and be nice. Get lucky.

GO!

Still have questions?

Reach out to us individually on Twitter or via the #reachhack or #reachhacking hashtags.