Channels and Traction
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This document discusses various traction channels that can be used to grow a startup. It begins by explaining key startup stages from ideation to establishing. It then provides details on 20 different traction channels, including viral marketing, PR, search engine marketing, social ads, content marketing, and engineering as marketing. The document emphasizes measuring channel performance and learning through testing different options. It presents the Bullseye Framework for choosing channels - brainstorming all options, ranking them, prioritizing the top 3 highest potential channels to test initially, and then focusing on the most promising one found through testing.
Channels and Traction
- 1. CHANNELS &TRACTION IED - COMMUNICATION DESIGN LABS
- 2. HELLO !
- 3. about.me Psychologist, full-stack digital marketer, data native, founder and much more buzz words! connect about.me/andykaiser
- 4. STARTUP KEY STAGES Minimum Viable Product Validate / Iterate (or pivot) Ideation Entrepreneurial ambition and/or potential scalable product or service idea for a big enough target market. Initial business idea on why and how it would create value. One person or a vague team; no confirmed commitment or no right balance of skills in the team structure yet. Concepting Defining mission and vision with initial strategy and key milestones defined for at least next 3 years on how to get there, -> 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 months. Two or three entrepreneurial core co- founders with complementary skills and balanced ownership plan. Maybe have extended team members for additional roles & ownership. Commitment Committed and balanced co- founding team with shared vision and attitude. Able to develop the product or service (Minimum Viable Product) without dependency of uncommitted external resources, or already have initial product or service in place. Shareholder agreement signed between co-founders, including milestones, committed time and money use, for minimum 3 years with vesting terms. Validation Iterating, validating assumptions until have validated solution to demonstrate initial user growth and/or revenue. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) identified. Can start to attract additional investment based resources (money or sweat equity) for equity, revenue share or future revenue. Scaling Focus on growth, showing KPI’s based measurable, growth in user, customer revenue growth and/or market traction in a big or fast growing target market. Can and want to grow fast. May, will or have attracted significant funding or would be able to do so if wanted. Hiring, improving in quality and implementing processes Establishing Achieved great growth, that can be expected to continue. Easily attracts financial and people resources. Depending on vision, mission and commitments, will continue to grow and often tries to culturally continue “like a startup". Founders and/or investors make exit(s) or continue with the company. Lean Startup This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Version 2.5 www.startupcommons.org Mission > Vision > Strategy Scale Up Business Model / Market Fit ● Co-founder team formation ● What, to whom? & Why and how? Grow / Expand -2 -1 30 21 Product / Market FitVision / Founders FitProblem / Solution Fit image by www.startupcommons.org measure / learn
- 5. STARTUP PYRAMID Product/Market-Fit- Transi3on-to-Growth- Growth- –Paul Graham “Make things people want” measure/learn Race to scale! Instrument your product Activate users Increase exposure
- 6. GROWTH 🚀
- 8. • Leading companies have cross-functional grow teams. • Steeped in data and creativity, scientific thinking, and are immersed in the product as much in the promotion.
- 9. WHAT’S A CHANNEL? 📺 How will you get your product or service to your customers, and their money back to you?
- 11. 1.VIRAL MARKETING Get your users to market for you
- 12. “Viral Marketing is like succeeding in Hollywood: every actor wants to do it, only a few succeed.”
- 13. • Think about your viral loop (funnel) • Calculate the viral coefficient • Think about your referral programs
- 15. • Monitor the viral coefficient.The viral coefficient (k) is invitation rate * acceptance rate • The invitation rate is, as you touch upon, #invites / #installs (users). It denotes the average number of invites sent per user. • The acceptance rate is #invitee signups / #invites. It is a measure of the success of your invites. • Your coefficient must be greater than 1 for viral growth.
- 18. • Work backwards from the headline • Keep it simple • Be positive and evoke strong emotional reaction • Humour, Sex, Big Names/Celebrities,Topicality, Practically Useful, Reality and/or Mystery Sells • Don'tTryToo Hard
- 20. 2. PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) Get your name out there via traditional media.
- 21. • Write good stories • Don’t forget cold email • Build real relationships with the reporters
- 22. 3. UNCONVENTIONAL PR Do stunts and treat your customers outrageously well, and word will spread.
- 23. • 2 types: Publicity stunt & customers appreciation • Newsjacking • Success in this channel is unpredictable
- 25. 4. SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM) Reach hundreds of millons of people by advertising on search engines.
- 26. • CTR vs CPC vs CPA • Use the scripts in Google Developer • Use Retargeting
- 28. 5. SOCIAL AND DISPLAY ADS Advertise on social media and websites to reach millons of potential customers.
- 29. • Link your ads to specific landing pages • Display ads harvest demand that exist now • Social ads helps to build awareness • Optimise the “Call to Action”
- 31. 6. OFFLINE ADS Reach customers offline viaTV, Radio and Print advertising.
- 32. • There are many types of offline ads • Search for audiences that match your target • Use codes or URL to track ad campaigns
- 33. 7. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO) Get to the top of search engines.
- 34. • Fat-head vs Long-tail • Produce amazing content • Get quality backlinks (through your content)
- 35. 8. CONTENT MARKETING Use your blog to educate and reach customers.
- 36. • Content is King! Create a quality blog • Create shareable contents (infographics,…) • Reaching out to influential industry leaders
- 38. 9. EMAIL MARKETING Reach and convert your prospects with targeted emails.
- 39. • It’s a personal traction channel • Build an email list of potential customers • Use it in every step of your customer lifecycle
- 41. 10. ENGINEERING AS MARKETING Use engineering resources to build tools that acquire customers.
- 42. • Micro-sites or widgets • Provide a free tool to help your customers • Make them as a lean product
- 44. 11.TARGETING BLOGS Target popular blogs to reach new audiences.
- 45. • Find the right blogs for your target • Create content partnerships with larger sites • Exchange early access for spreading the word
- 46. 12. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Use partnerships to acquire millions of customers.
- 47. • JointVentures, Licensing, Standard partnership,… • Pick the right partners • Build a Business Development pipelines of deals
- 49. 13. SALES Sell your product to enterprises and other customers.
- 50. • Sales work best for high-priced products • Design a Sales Funnel (and measure it!) • Use cold calling for your first customers
- 51. 14.AFFILIATE PROGRAMS Get affiliate to sell your product for you.
- 52. • How much you are willing to pay to get a customer? • Use an existing affiliate network • Or create your own affiliate program
- 53. 15. EXISTING PLATFORMS Tie your growth to a larger platform like Facebook, Pinterest or the App Store.
- 54. • Figure out where your potential customers are • Think about App stores: Ranking strategy • Social Platforms vs Dark social
- 56. 16.TRADE SHOWS Get customers and partners by participating in industry trade shows.
- 57. • Which events to attend • Have an inbound & outbound strategy. • Great way to move the needle in a matter of days
- 58. 17. OFFLINE EVENTS Create an event to bring customers to you.
- 59. • Participate at conferences or create your own • Meetups can be a scalable local tactic • Be creative and use technology to take advantage
- 60. 18. SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS Give speeches to group of potential customers.
- 61. • Build your speaking reputation • Most successful talks tell a story at stage • What value can you offer to the participant?
- 62. 19. COMMUNITY BUILDING Build a community around your company or product.
- 63. • Communicate with your audience • Be transparent • Cultivate & empower evangelist
- 65. 20. UNTAPPED CHANNELS Test and use new channels
- 66. • 20 years ago there was no SEO or SEM Channel! • New channels in the right moment have great traction • Future Channels? Self-driving cars, Proximity Ads,VR, Drones,…
- 68. HOWTO CHOOSE THE RIGHT CHANNEL?
- 70. AUDIENCE • Define your target audience: age, gender, location, demographics, interest, behaviours,… • Understand your target audience: customer journey & user persona.
- 71. CHANNELS • Define your target channels. • Test, measure and learn.
- 73. • Step 1: Brainstorm • Step 2: Rank • Step 3: Prioritise • Step 4:Test • Step 5: Focusing
- 74. STEP 1: BRAINSTORM • Avoid channel biases. Do not dismiss any traction channel. • What marketing strategies have worked in your industry? • You may want to consider costs and timeframe.
- 76. STEP 2: RANK Highest-Potential Channels Possibilities Long-shots
- 77. STEP 3: PRIORITISE Highest-Potential Channels Possibilities Long-shots max 3!
- 78. STEP 4:TEST • Find out which of the traction channels in your inner circle is worth focusing on. • Make that decision based on results from series of relatively cheap test.
- 79. STEP 4:TEST • Roughly how much will it cost to acquire customers through this channel? • How many customers are available through this channel? • Are the customers that you’re acquiring through this channel ones you want?
- 80. STEP 5: FOCUSING • If one of the traction channels you tested in your inner circle produced promising results, you should start directing your traction efforts and resources towards that most promising channel. • At any startup stage one traction channel dominates in terms of customer acquisition. Focus on one at a time and optimise it.
- 81. DON’T PUT ALLYOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET! 🐣
- 82. THANKYOU! 😊