16. 3 ways to grow
1.Sticky - users never leave
2.Paid - buy users for less
than you earn
17. 3 ways to grow
1.Sticky - users never leave
2.Paid - buy users for less
than you earn
3.Viral - each user
brings at least 1 more
18. The right qualities for early stage
1.Sticky - cheap & fast
2.Paid - expensive; requires
mature business model
3.Viral - slow; requires lots of
product development
19. Sticky
Once a customer shows up,
they never leave
Focus on retaining existing
users rather than finding a
repeatable way to get new ones
20. Paid
You can buy a user (via ads
or salespeople) for less than
you can earn from them
Rarely works profitably for
young companies
22. Rules of thumb
You can scale software with direct sales if
your product sells for more than $10,000
!
Online ads are usually unprofitable for
startups, but they’re cheap & easy to test
23. Caveat emptor
Premature scale is the #1
killer of startups mainly
because of how much money
you can spend when you try to
“buy” lots of customers
24. Viral
Each user you get brings at
least one more along with
them
More of a product strategy
than a marketing one
25. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your founding
team
26. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your founding
team
2.You will prioritize growth over everything
(including revenue)
27. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your founding
team
2.You will prioritize growth over everything
(including revenue)
3.Virality must be core to the product, not a
marketing add-on
28. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your founding
team
2.You will prioritize growth over everything
(including revenue)
3.Virality must be core to the product, not a
marketing add-on
4.You must be relentlessly metrics-driven
29. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your founding
team
2.You will prioritize growth over everything
(including revenue)
3.Virality must be core to the product, not a
marketing add-on
4.You must be relentlessly metrics-driven
5.“Word of mouth” is not a viral strategy
30. The rules of viral
1.You must have tech & design on your
founding team
2.You will prioritize growth over everything
(including revenue)
3.Virality must be core to the product, not a
marketing add-on
4.You must be relentlessly metrics-driven
5.“Word of mouth” is not a viral strategy
6.Neither is twitter
31. The golden rule of viral
Nobody cares about your
product as much as you do.
If they’re going to share it, the
act of sharing must add value.
32. Discussion
Which products caused you to quickly
get other people to use them?
!
Was it voluntary (a recommendation)
or forced (a requirement)?
35. Improving virality
k = #referrals
* clickthrough
* conversion
1.Improve k
2.Reduce time until sharing (it spreads
faster if you share after a minute vs. a
month)
36. In our humble opinion...
Sticky is the right
option for 90% of
new companies
38. Jason Cohen
(on starting another company when
he already has an audience of 50,000)
Absolutely true, it’s a completely unfair
advantage, and it’s why so many people
harp on folks to start things like blogs and
mailing lists.
!
When you want to do things like sell a book
or a new startup you have a running start!
41. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
42. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
3.Exchange larger gift for permission to
contact
43. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
3.Exchange larger gift for permission to
contact
4.Stay in touch, over-deliver value
44. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
3.Exchange larger gift for permission to
contact
4.Stay in touch, over-deliver value
5.Convert subscribers to paid customers of
core product
45. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
3.Exchange larger gift for permission to
contact
4.Stay in touch, over-deliver value
5.Convert subscribers to paid customers
of core product
6.Retain, up-sell, get referrals
46. The community funnel process
1.Traffic shows up (we’ll learn from where)
2.You give away free gift & create value
3.Exchange larger gift for permission
to contact
4.Stay in touch, over-deliver value
5.Convert subscribers to paid customers
of core product
6.Retain, up-sell, get referrals
47. Daniel Priestly
If you only have the core
product and not the full
model, you don’t have enough
flow and are tempted to
incorrectly drop the price
48. We’ll need to design these 5 pieces
1. Free gift
2. Product for prospects
3. Stay-in-touch content
4. Core product (£)
5. Follow-on product (£££)
49. Discussion
What are some gifts that
are cheap for us to give
away, and which create
real value for visitors?
52. Rand Fishkin
Content is the keystone of
inbound marketing. Without
content, there’s no SEO, no
social media, no community, and
no revenue.
53. To create value, the
content needs to be
exceptional
!
(which is different from perfect)
54. Content is great
1.Fast & cheap to produce
2.Free & instant to distribute
3.Measurable
4.Lets you begin building audience
before product is finalized
5.Repeatable
55. Your startup has a mission
Startups are designed
to either create joy
or remove pain
56. Your content has a mission too.
What do they get for their time?
This is all about
helping ____________
learn/be/do __________.
57. Tip
Your content shouldn’t do exactly the
same thing as your product. Rather, it
should be interesting for the sort of person
who might also want your product.
!
For example, if your product is healthy snack
food, your content could be about helping busy
parents create a healthy home and happy kid.
58. 120 seconds. Make as many as you can.
This is all about
helping ____________
learn/be/do __________.
65. Example: tools for writers
This is all about helping new
authors get their first book
finished
!
!
66. Example: tools for writers
This is all about helping
new authors get their first book
finished
!
1.Daily inspirational mini-posts
67. Example: tools for writers
This is all about helping
new authors get their first
book finished
!
1.Daily inspirational mini-posts
2.Helpful weekly newsletter
69. The content creator’s spiral of death
1.Decide you’ll write every
time you have a “good idea”.
2.Wait months.
3.At last, inspiration has
struck!
4.Treat it like your baby.
Protect & perfect it.
5.Takes time. Finally finish.
6.Traffic doesn’t change
7.Not worth it. Give up.
70. Marketing is work (not inspiration)
Community growth: 2 years of writing when
inspiration struck vs. 3 months of writing
daily
(from roughly 0 to 250,000 monthly visitors)
71. Best practice
Put your marketing on auto-
pilot by deciding:
!
1. What you’ll create and how often
2. Where you’ll announce it
73. Example: tools for writers
1.Daily inspirational mini-posts on
pinterest
2.Helpful weekly newsletter
74. Example: tools for writers
1.Daily inspirational mini-posts
on pinterest
2.Helpful weekly newsletter of
an author interview
talking about writer’s
block
75. Remember
Don’t make a decision every day
if you can just make it once!
!
(but of course, be ready to make a
new decision if this one isn’t working)
76. Best practice
Reduce the cost by:
!
1. Front-loading the creative burden
2. Removing friction from creation
through batching, outsourcing, and
setting up a content creation flow
77. Example: tools for writers
1.Spend 2 hours today finding several dozen
quotes, then outsource the design and daily
posting to a student
78. Example: tools for writers
1.Spend 2 hours today finding several
dozen quotes, then outsource the
design and daily posting to a student
2.Email all your favorite writers today to
ask for interviews. Record the skype
calls as soon as possible and send the
audio to your student helper for
transcription and editing
80. More examples
• Twitter important to you? Use bufferapp.com and
ifttt.com to automate
• Making lots of video content? Set up a permanent
studio for lighting & recording in your flat
81. More examples
• Twitter important to you? Use bufferapp.com and
ifttt.com to automate
• Making lots of video content? Set up a permanent
studio for lighting & recording in your flat
• Spending forever perfecting your blog posts? Write
outlines and then pay a grad student £10 to edit
82. More examples
• Twitter important to you? Use bufferapp.com and
ifttt.com to automate
• Making lots of video content? Set up a permanent
studio for lighting & recording in your flat
• Spending forever perfecting your blog posts? Write
outlines and then pay a grad student £10 to edit
• Wasting time on fancy graphs? Use tools like
infogr.am to trivialize the process
83. More examples
• Twitter important to you? Use bufferapp.com and
ifttt.com to automate
• Making lots of video content? Set up a permanent
studio for lighting & recording in your flat
• Spending forever perfecting your blog posts? Write
outlines and then pay a grad student £10 to edit
• Wasting time on fancy graphs? Use tools like
infogr.am to trivialize the process
• Video editing taking forever? Adjust your style &
content to work with socialcam.com in one take
84. Workshop!
We’re going to front-load the creative
burden of “what to write” by coming
up with your manifesto
!
1. You’ll soon have a pile of raw ideas
2. Later, turn them into content marketing
85. Rules
90 seconds per trigger question
!
Come up with as many ideas as you can,
one idea per card. Don’t self-censor.
!
Remember who you are trying to help!
86. You
“It is absurd that…”
!
What’s wrong with your industry?
With the world? Pick a fight!
90 seconds
88. You
What are the must-read books
and authors for your visitors?
!
Making recommendations for other good content
is easy and valuable. Why do you like these
sources?
90 seconds
89. You
Mistakes were made!
!
What are the most common blunders people
fall for when trying to accomplish this? Bonus
points if you can share personal failure tales.
90 seconds
90. You
What’s the most common
bad advice?
!
Who gave that moron a microphone!? What’s the
most popular advice in this area that you totally
disagree with?
90 seconds
91. You
What are the recent
questions you’ve been asked?
!
Get into the habit of writing down the questions
customers ask you about the industry - every
answer is a bit of content marketing in disguise!
90 seconds
92. 3 minutes
Working in pairs, help each other turn
as many ideas as possible into strong
titles that make a bold claim.
!
Once you have the title, creating the
rest of the content is easy.
93. Rob’s process
1.Capture loads of ideas
2.Ideas -> Titles -> Drafts ->
Scheduled backlog
3.Don’t obsess; publish 2nd drafts
4.Automate promotion
5.Ignore analytics
6.Write a little every day
94. Content marketing is powerful
Two startups with the same product;
one of them used blogging strategically
102. Reality check!
Every founder dreams of creating an
empire and prays they’re sitting on a
powder keg.
!
But most of us are actually growing
movements. We gain customers and fans
one step at a time. There’s no magic bullet.
103. These are the top 5
mistakes he’s seen
other founders make
105. Why is it useful to explore early?
1.Initial customer development
informs your product roadmap
106. Why is it useful to explore early?
1.Initial customer development
informs your product roadmap
2.Launch with a nice base of initial
users
107. Why is it useful to explore early?
1.Initial customer development
informs your product roadmap
2.Launch with a nice base of
initial users
3.Test messaging and
distribution channels
109. How much time is it really worth?
1.Distribution is equally important
as product
110. How much time is it really worth?
1.Distribution is equally important
as product
2.You should be spending 50% of
your time on it
111. How much time is it really worth?
1.Distribution is equally
important as product
2.You should be spending 50%
of your time on it
3.For tech people, you should
probably bias it to 75%
113. Micro-opportunities
Micro-opportunities are little chances to
grow which appear unexpectedly and
temporarily.
!
E.g. responding to a story in the press or
trying a newly created advertising platform.
114. Each of the letters was a successful
micro-opportunity for growth
115.
116. This week, for example, Instagram is
launching their new ad platform
117. Gabriel Weinberg
You have to be watching, flexible
and creative.
!
So you need to be spending
enough time on it.
120. Traction comfort zones
Every startup relies on blogging, twitter,
and Adwords. They can’t be the
solution for everyone.
What about billboards? PR? Publicity
stunts? Direct sales? Lead generation?
Snail mail?
Sometimes the weird stuff works.
122. Gabriel Weinberg
The usual approach is to build
the product, then frantically try
to figure out how to promote
things, then haphazardly
attempt the obvious stuff
123. Discussion
We talked about product MVPs.
!
What would a traction MVP
look like? What are some
examples?
125. The traction process
1.Have an educated guess at a few traction
verticals
2.List them all out in order of potential
usefulness
126. The traction process
1.Have an educated guess at a few traction
verticals
2.List them all out in order of potential
usefulness
3.Approach the most promising verticals
(say five) with small but effective tests
127. The traction process
1.Have an educated guess at a few
traction verticals
2.List them all out in order of potential
usefulness
3.Approach the most promising verticals
(say five) with small but effective tests
4.If one or two out of the initial five
seem promising, focus hard on them
130. Key metrics (the short version)
Sticky - community growth rate;
conversion to paid
Paid - lifetime value; cost of
acquisition
Viral - # of referrals; clickthrough
rate; conversion rate
131. You measure because...
You have better things
to do with your time
and money than
ineffective marketing!
132. Build the funnel to “catch” traffic
1. Free gift
2. Product for prospects
3. Stay-in-touch content
4. Core product (£)
5. Follow-on product (£££)
