Way back in January while I had some free time and was contemplating my next job, I decided to start a meetup group. And in contrast to my usual style I decided to give it a name that actually makes sense: The Boston-Area Startup Marketing Group. At the time, I was consulting out of betahouse in Cambridge and I was inspired by all the entrepreneurial energy surrounding me. I was watching insanely talented people building amazing things, and I asked “what’s your number one challenge in turning ____ into the next big thing?”
The answer I heard most: “Nobody knows about it.”
It’s true. Most solo or small team tech entrepreneurs don’t have the time or resources they’d like to devote to marketing and promotion. There just aren’t enough hours in the day or people to do it. Startups with dedicated marketing people are in a better spot, but still face the same problems of time and resource allocation. With thousands of sites to promote a startup online, the following questions arise:
Which sites are worth the time?
Where’s my audience?
What kind of content are they looking for?
After taking the time to blog, podcast, etc., how do I put it where my prospective users will see it?
With those questions in mind, I decided to present “Getting Your Startup Found Online” as our first meetup. Since the presentation is very tactical and focused on content promotion and light on strategy, I took a step backwards:
Though blogging, podcasting and promotion are fun, they need to take place in the larger context of a marketing plan. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself nuts by just throwing content out there to see what sticks. In our case we started with a list of our main objectives. In short: what is the goal? For example, if you’re a B-to-C startup focused on user acquisition, give yourself a target user number.
After we had solid, actionable objectives, we moved on to the buyer personas. At this point we wanted to really get to know our prospective buyers. We looked into things like:
Age
Industry
Title
Online behavior
Goals
Day-to-day tasks
Decision-making abilities
Of course, this is different for all startups, but the goal is the same. You want a deep understanding of who your targets are, where they go online and how they make the decision to buy (or join/subscribe/download) what you have to offer.
We then focused on our Company Persona, giving us a clear picture of:
How we want to be perceived by our customers
What tone we’ll use
What colors we’ll use
How we’ll set ourselves apart from everyone else
The persona exercises then led into our keyword research, which fed into our content plan. And with the majority of our content planned, we moved onto my favorite part: SEO + Promotion or Getting Noticed Online.
Well, you need to start somewhere, and I can’t think of a better place than google, yahoo, crunchbase, killerstartups, vator.tv and the like. These are directories that usually take some time to index your site, but are important sources of residual traffic.
Next, you’ll want to grab some land. We’re talking about twitter accounts, flickr accounts, friendfeed, vimeo, youtube, stumbleupon, delicious….the works. These will be important when it comes to promotion.
Now it’s time to find your audience. Where do they go online? Do they participate in LinkedIn groups? Ning networks? Facebook? Reddit? Forums? Go out there and find out where your target users are hanging out, and find out what they’re talking about. This is NOT an open invitation to spam people. Instead, find out what problems they have. Find out what they’re looking for. Find out how you can help with what you’re going to offer.
Now get out there and create some compelling content! Shoot some video. Get blogging. Fire up a podcast. Start producing content and you’ll start to see what works.
Now that you have a great blog post, video, podcast, etc. it’s time to promote it. Go get a bit.ly URL so you can promote the link on twitter. Bookmark it in delicious and diigo. Add it on stumbleupon. Submit it to reddit and digg….but only in relevant categories.
I must admit, this is the oversimplification of the decade, but you’ll find more information in the video below. The goal of this presentation was to give a quick overview of my workflow when it comes to content creation and promotion. It’s definitely not one-size-fits-all, but it’s close.
If you’re interested in joining our meetup group, you can find out more here.
So, here’s the situation. I was plowing through emails this morning and had an email from FastPitch Networking. Here’s what it said:
All right. No big deal, right? You get stuff like this all the time, no? But then…….
My phone rings. I answer it.
“Hi this is Bob Poole from FastPitch Networking…..”
Wait, does Bob somehow know that I’m looking at the email at that moment? That was kinda weird.
Rather than Bob actually calling me, it was a prerecorded robocall from FastPitch Networking. The call basically reiterated the same information from the email, then let me know that if I had any questions, I could find the answers on the web site.
I looked back at their site, and noticed that a phone number is required to sign up for the service, but I didn’t see anything in the privacy policy about them calling you (though it didn’t say they wouldn’t either!).
So, I was just wondering:
Is this a successful strategy? I mean, I understand how effective a phone call to a prospect can be, but is a robocall effective?
Has anyone else tried this technique?
How would you feel if a service you use (twitter, facebook, etc) robocalled you to encourage you to check out new features?
I’m not annoyed or mad, nor do I necessarily think this was a bad thing. Instead, it’s just something I’ve never heard of before and I’m curious to see what others have experienced.
I never thought I’d type the following sentence: I’m excited about a webapp that manages tasks and projects.
Yep. I just wrote that.
I’ve seen a million web apps that do slick, fancy things, and have dismissed them with a jaded “meh.” But today I was introduced to something that manages day to day tasks and lists. And I loved it. It’s called springpad, and here’s why.
What’s a springpad?
So, here’s the short description:
“Springpads are free online notebooks that help you manage your life. Use your springpad to keep track of notes, photos, maps, to-do’s, contacts, appointments & more.”
As someone that makes lists of everything (seriously, I have a list on my refrigerator right now with the first item “Find Full Time Gig” followed by “Get Oil Change”) a web based application that can manage all the lists I make for completing tasks and can tie-in to other web APIs makes all the sense in the world. So let’s take a look:
That’s the springpad homepage. You’ll notice that they’re focused on holiday and seasonally themed notebooks right now like:
Weekly Meal Planner
Thanksgiving Menu Planner
Gift Planner
Trip Planner
Job Planner
There are dozens of possible springpads:
Here’s a video that explains how to use springpad:
What’s Different
On the surface, an online notebook isn’t all that sexy, but springpad has several underlying features that sets it apart from competitors that simply stop at creating a list-based application.
1. Bloggers as experts- To help users get started and to help them make lists, springpad is looking to bloggers as experts. For instance, let’s pretend for a second that I’m an expert chef (I said let’s pretend, ok??). If I have a blog with a great recipe, people might want to be able to import my recipe into a springpad. Right now, this is a manual process, but down the line, there will be automatic springpad integration in blogs. With one click, a springpad user can “spring it”, which will copy the recipe using standard microformats into a springpad.
Here’s what that will look like (currently available on thesimpleme):
Clicking “Spring The Task List” will copy the list and will redirect me to:
Then:
2. Traffic to Blogs- Again, if I were a subject matter expert, I’d love to get new traffic from springpad instead of just sending my traffic there. Well, they’ve got that. In its current incarnation, spring pad’s SpringAdvice is a site that scours the internet for smes (subject matter experts), and links to their content:
Of course, this is a win-win. Bloggers are able to get new traffic and are seen as experts in a topic, and springpad users are able to easily import lists. And springpartners (the company behind springpad) is able to increase their visibility by having multiple links to the service from blogs across the web.
One of the other things I like about the springpartners strategy is their focus on end users. While most web notebooks are focused on the technology and turn to early adopters for user acquisition, springpartners has made the decision to go after specific user groups. Because there are so many uses for springpads, the company is able to target usergroups based on the problems they’re solving. For instance, there’s a springpad for Pregnancy Health Notes and Nursery Planning. This allows springpartners to approach bloggers writing about pregnancy, helping them reach out to expectant moms looking to organize information in one place. In addition, springpartners can approach mainstream media sources on a topic-level basis. It’s a great strategy.
The best part of springpartners in my opinion is that they’re actually solving a problem that people have, and their solution is based on an approach everyone is familiar with: making lists.
Keep an eye on this one, as there’s a lot still to come. They just opened their beta, but in the coming months, you’ll really start to see how the list-making component can play with existing APIs. Sure, it integrates with Yelp and Google Maps now, but with the APIs now available, you’ll see topic-level integration with relevant web services. Write a shopping list? Maybe it can integrate with an API that will look at the items on your list and give discounts or price comparisons. The opportunities here are massive.
Okay, so I’m still trying to figure out this whole video thing and I’m not entirely comfortable with it. But I think this format is at least a step in the right direction. This is just a quick video talking about exactly two things:
Last night I got an email from a old co-worker inviting me to check out SocialMinder, which said:
SocialMinder is an online assistant that helps you maintain relationships with your LinkedIn network.
I thought that you might appreciate a free invitation to the “closed” alpha test of SocialMinder.
SociaMinder:
* Scans your email headers and maps them to your LinkedIn network
* Identifies relationships that need strengthening
* Helps identify recent business news to discuss with each contact, no matter how out of touch you are
* You get weekly updates identifying top opportunities to build a better network
I have arranged for you to get a priority account;
1) Go to http://www.SocialMinder.com , and
2) Click on the green button (‘sign me up’)
You are on the priority list, but your space is only held for 3 days.
And the price is FREE…
Hope that it works for you!
Since this came from someone I knew (and someone that has sent me beta invites in the past), I decided to go check it out. You enter your gmail username and password, and SocialMinder tells you how long it’s been since you’ve contacted everyone in your gmail address book.
I then was brought to this screen:
If you can’t read what’s in the yellow box, it says:
Click here to upgrade to full version for free - just answer a few questions in our Alpha phase questionnaire. The full version helps you manage all of your contacts, and checks for contact updates regularly.
Oh, cool. I can get an upgrade to the full version just by answering a few questions in the Alpha phase questionnaire, right? I can answer a few questions. No biggie.
So I click. And here’s what I see:
No problem. This one’s easy. For some reason I see the following at the top:
Free Trial Upgrade- Step One of Two
But that’s okay.
So I answer the questions and click OK. Here’s what I get:
Yup, you read that right. Here’s the line:
To get your free full trial upgrade, you must select 15 friends to be sent a pre-approved invitation to try SocialMinder.
So the third step- which wasn’t mentioned at the beginning- is spamming 15 of your friends.
My Point:
I have no problem with services trying to get users to spread the word. It not only makes sense, it’s essential. But in user acquisition as with everything else, you have to manage expectations. And as someone who just ran through this process, I’m left feeling cheated. I feel like I wasted my time, and I’ll never go back to the service again.
Harsh? Probably. But I’m just pointing out how easy it is to make someone feel cheated and angry when promising one thing and giving them another.
Since the beginning of his campaign, Barack Obama has understood one simple, yet essential principle that seemed to elude all other candidates. He was a master at crafting the exact right message for exactly the right audience, and he was always able to do so without ever being manipulative. Right before his acceptance speech, he sent the following email to his supporter list:
Nathan –
I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history.
And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.
You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.
We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing…
All of this happened because of you.
The guy just won the election, and was about to give his acceptance speech, but he made sure to send a quick note to those that were responsible for his win. (And yes, I realize the note was likely ready to go well in advance, and could have been written by anyone) The lesson here is this: the little things mean everything. Treat your members, users, customers like they’re insiders, and always let them know how important they are to you.
Over the last few days, I’ve had a lot of time to think. Between talking with recruiters, networking, and doing freelance work, I’ve still found a big chunk of time where I’ve been alone with my thoughts. And when that happens, I tend to get ideas for blog posts. This one came to me while driving, so I had to write down my thoughts on the back of an envelope which still sits in my passenger seat.
While trying to figure out my next move, I’ve been asked the following obvious, yet terrifying question many times: “What do you want to do?” It’s usually followed by “Either way, you still want to stay in social media, right?” And of course my answer leads me to an unstructured, yet passionate diatribe about social media marketing and what that actually means. This post is my attempt to explain my answer in written form. You’ll have to just imagine me flailing my hands wildly to try to convey my enthusiasm.
When it comes to the role of marketing at any company, there are four words that pop into my head:
Goals
Strategies
Tools
Execution
These are, in order, the four things needed to accomplish anything in marketing, whether you’re a startup, a chimney sweep, a presidential candidate, or a shower curtain hook salesman.
Goals
We begin here, as without goals, what’s the point? If you don’t know what you’re trying to do, you certainly can’t come up with a strategy to accomplish it, you can’t decide on the right tools to do it, and you can’t put it all together to execute. It’s just not going to happen.
So, what are you trying to do? Are you interested in selling 1000 units? Are you trying to bring your userbase from 10 to 10,000? Are you trying to position your firm as an expert in wild badger capture and removal in the Northwestern Maine market? Good. Write it down. That’s your goal. You’ve completed step one. You’re on your way, sports fan.
Strategies
Now you’ve got your goals and you’re ready to get moving. It’s time to come up with a strategy. You’ve determined that you need to increase your user base (or any of the other examples above). So how are you going to do that?
Let’s put a strategy together. Going with the user acquisition example, let’s ask some questions:
Why don’t we have the number of users we want right now?
Is it because people don’t know about us?
Is our offering compelling enough?
Are we doing a good job at describing our benefit?
Have we done a good job at cultivating passionate users?
What are we lousy at?
Have we asked our current users about our pain points?
Have we implemented sufficient feedback mechanisms to address what our current users have said about us?
Once you’ve addressed those and about three dozen other questions, it’s time to devise a strategy to both address what you haven’t done and take advantage of opportunites you haven’t tried yet.
Again, running with the “we don’t have enough users” theme, let’s say we’ve decided that we don’t have enough users because no one knows we exist. So our strategy is this:
We’re going to do an awareness and promotion campaign to let the world know we’ve got a great service. We’re going to leverage our current user base and we’re also going to reach out to people that write about services similar to ours to let them know we’re out here. We’ll be clear and specific, and we’re not going to overburden them with marketing buzzwords. The goal of this campaign is to increase traffic to our sign in page, increase conversion, and finally turn casual users into active members.
Tools
Would you look at that? You’ve got a strategy (btw, I’m greatly simplifying the process here, as it is a blog post. this post is getting long even for me). Great. Now it’s time to see what tools are out there that will help you satisfy the objective.
To me, this is where social media comes in. Because when you really think about it, the collective “social media” is really just a series of communications tools that- when used properly - can help you engage with the people you need to reach to satisfy your goal.
So, in the above example, is facebook a good idea? Maybe. Twitter? Could be. StumbleUpon, diigo, digg, reddit, Zemanta, wikis, friendfeed, flickr, vimeo, YouTube…..?
Whoa, killer. I’m not a frog, you’re not a bunny rabbit. Let’s not jump ahead.
Look at all of the tools available, and evaluate them to see if they’re right for what you’re trying to do. There is nothing more sad and drepressing than a blog that hasn’t been updated since the first post. Figure out what you’re willing to do, what fits your strategy, and what just doesn’t feel right. Then…..
Execution
Armed with your goals, strategies and tools, get out there and do it. Find out what works. Find out where your audience is, and talk to people. Look at what produces results and figure out how to make the most of it. Figure out what is a terrible idea and learn from it.
And one thing I should absolutely mention is this: measure everything. Become a google analytics addict. Use something like NuConomy or a paid service like omniture to supplement your top level analysis of how the campaign is going. Figure out who’s talking about you using things like Google Alerts and Twitter Search. Get all the information you possibly can, and dive into the data to find out why people come to your site, where they bail, what pages succeed and where your gut is wrong. Numbers don’t lie. Get in there and get under the hood.
So, that’s my 15 minute diatribe that serves as this week’s glaring oversimplification of marketing using social media tools. Hope you have a great weekend, and if you’re a company looking to use this advice, let me know. I may just know a guy that has recently been dropped on the job market.
So, it’s Friday, and that means it’s been a full work week since matchmine closed up shop. It’s been a crazy week full of talking with some great recruiters, networking with friends, and hearing from some really interesting companies that might have a good opportunity for me.
As I am physically unable to relax for more than ten minutes at a time, I was psyched to get a couple of really good freelance projects. It’s been quite some time since I’ve done any side work, so I was really excited to get the chance to focus on one small project for a short time.
I’m really excited to see what next week will bring. I’m hoping to go on a few interviews, and can’t wait to see what’s out there. Now it’s time to write a quick blogstring post on something that’s been floating around in my head over the last few days.
