Getting your product out of your heads and into the hands and hearts of users. The slides from my startup marketing class at General Assembly, November 2012.

1. STARTUP MARKETING
GETTING YOUR PRODUCT OUT OF YOUR HEADS
AND INTO THE HANDS AND HEARTS OF USERS
@THOMCUMMINGS

2. THE WORLD’S SOCIAL SOUND PLATFORM

3. CONTENTS
1. MARKETING STRATEGY
2. EARLY STAGE CUSTOMER GENEARTION
3. GROW BY UNDERSTANDING

4. MARKETING STRATEGY

5. Marketing is for
companies who have
sucky products
Fred Wilson

6. MARKETING IS
DEAD
LONG LIVE
MARKETING

7. WHAT IS STARTUP MARKETING.
CLASSIC
DESIGN
MARKETING
THINKING
STRATEGY
METRICS

8. Feature evaluation
Co-branded Email CRM
Referrals
promotions User surveys
Engagement
Sales offers Funnel optimisation
Product usage Market research
Case studies Ethnographics
App distribution
Newsletters
Pricing analysis
Predictive modelling
Segmentation
Press releases
SEO
Dashboards Creative campaigns
Education Partner comms.
Videos User profiles
Events
Find the user.
Find the magic.
Connect the two.

9. CLASSIC MARKETING STRATEGY
5C + 6P + 6M

10. COMPANY CONTEXT COLLABORATORS
CUSTOMER COMPETITORS
Segmentation Differentiation
POSITIONING

11. P
roduct
lace
romotion
rice
ackaging
eople

12. M
ission
arket
essage
edia
oney
easurement

13. AWARENESS
INTEREST
TRIAL
USAGE
LOYAL
FOLLOW THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE
♥

14. MAXIMISE
THE
♥

15. CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

16. THE BEST PRODUCT WINS

17. MAKE YOUR PRODUCT NATIVELY SOCIAL

18. THE FIRST FIVE HUNDRED

19. BUILD YOUR COMMUNITY

20. BRANDING

21. GHETTO TESTING.
SEO.
SEM testing.
Social.
ReTargeting.

22. FIND MULTIPLIERS

23. INBOUND MARKETING
Blogs.
podcasts.
Video.
eBooks.
enewsletters.
Whitepapers.
Social media marketing.
PR.
etc...

24. CHARGE FOR SOMETHING
$

25. DO THE HUSTLE.

26. GROW BY UNDERSTANDING

27. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT
How disappointed would
you be if you could no
longer use [our service]?
• Very disappointed
• Somewhat disappointed
• Not disappointed at all
40%
Very disappointed
SOURCE: http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/

28. PIRATE METRICS DASHBOARD
SEPARATOR
SOURCE: http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-long-version

29. VIRAL GROWTH... THE HOLY GRAIL
Signups Active Shares Impressions
VGF = % USERS SHARE * # SHARES * SIGNUP CONVERSION

30. NET PROMOTER SCORE
SEPARATOR
SOURCE: http://www.netpromoter.com/np/calculate.jsp

31. MULTIVARIATE TESTING & CONVERSION
SEPARATOR
Some useful tools:
• Google Website Optimizer
• Visual Website Optimizer
• Optimizely
• Unbounce Landing Pages

32. BUT BEWARE...
SEPARATOR

33. Design like you’re right
and listen like you’re
wrong.
John Lilly

34. USER TESTING & REAL WORLD FEEDBACK
SEPARATOR
Some useful tools:
• Usertesting.com
• Loop11
• http://usabilla.com/
• http://fivesecondtest.com/

35. HALF THE MONEY I SPEND
ON ADVERTISING IS WASTED;
THE TROUBLE IS I DON'T
KNOW WHICH HALF.
John Wanamaker

36. SCALING EFFECTIVELY.
LTV
ROI = CPA
Lifetime Value
Average spend * Purchase frequency *
Lifespan * Profit Margin

37. COHORT ANALYSIS
Cohort Period 0 Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Total
Week 1 100 50 20 15 100
Week 2 200 30 10 250
Week 3 150 80 200
Week 4 500 605

38. YOU CAN MEASURE FOR...
.... basically anything and everything
But pick the top 5 relveant metrics for your business + focus
E.g.
• Retention
• Upgrade & Cross-sell
• Activation
• Social or Engagement measures
Slice it by platform, region, channel, segment...
Some useful tools:
• KissMetrics
• Performable
• MixPanel
• Spreadsheets!

39. THANKS!
@THOMCUMMINGS
THOM@SOUNDCLOUD.COM
WE’RE HIRING: SOUNDCLOUD.COM/JOBS