This document discusses a marketing model called the Percolating Ziggurat and how it relates to crossing the chasm. The Percolating Ziggurat model views the process of gaining customers as climbing steps of a ziggurat pyramid, with different communication techniques needed for each step. Early steps involve getting press coverage and creating marketing stories to attract early adopters. Later steps require more guidance and integration with other applications. Creating and spreading marketing stories through the press and word-of-mouth is key to helping the product percolate up the ziggurat steps to broader audiences.

1. Monday, March 28, 2011 1

2. Introduction This talk is about a marketing communication metaphor, the Percolating Ziggurat, its relationship with Crossing the Chasm models, and how it relates to the evolving story of the marketing of a software product. Monday, March 28, 2011 2

3. Why new models In recent years, there has been an evolution of both the market and the offering, that has deep impacts on software marketing. Also the ideas concerning how to market have evolved, in parallel with marketing changing from a one-way to a two-way communication. Monday, March 28, 2011 3

4. Context This model is meant for software product creators that are doing something that needs global reach. Some of what I say does not hold for very small niches. Monday, March 28, 2011 4

5. Context Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore Tribes by Seth Godin Monday, March 28, 2011 5

6. Context Basic problem of startups: time scarcity, limited resources. You all know that you should fail fast. Model can help define what to do, when. Monday, March 28, 2011 6

7. Context What and when things should be done when creating product should be dictated by a schedule based on acquiring different kinds of attention at different times. Monday, March 28, 2011 7

8. The model Sometimes a silly visual metaphor can help. Monday, March 28, 2011 8

9. Percolating Ziggurat Monday, March 28, 2011 9

10. The model People at a step are a set of potential customers who have a common set of needs or wants or potential to have new similar needs that reference each other when making a try / buy decision. (Adapted from CtC). Monday, March 28, 2011 10

11. Percolating Ziggurat Monday, March 28, 2011 11

12. Percolation The force of indexing and social propagation. Today there is “gravity”, a intrinsic force of the Internet. Social and SEO gravity induces percolation. Percolation is slow, and drop by drop. Monday, March 28, 2011 12

13. Communication changes What and how you should communicate changes in function of the Ziggurat step at which you are. Creating relationship with users is pursued with different means in function of which kinds of users you are talking with. Monday, March 28, 2011 13

14. Crossing the Chasm Comparing CtC model with today’s situation can help understanding the Percolating Ziggurat idea. Monday, March 28, 2011 14

15. Crossing the chasm – very short version Monday, March 28, 2011 15

16. Crossing the chasm – very short version Monday, March 28, 2011 16

17. Crossing the chasm – very short version Innovators pursue new technology products aggressively. Early adopters are not technologists but buy products very early in the product lifecycle. Early majority relate to technology but need practical hooks. Late majority need to see other using it. Laggards are hopeless Monday, March 28, 2011 17

18. From Gaussian to Ziggurat The ziggurat is the Gaussian of CtC turned by 90° and using different techniques (also no techniques) for easing percolation. Crossing the Chasm is not a discrete process, because of the evolution of communication. Monday, March 28, 2011 18

19. Step 0: having something to show Enough models: lets get into details and see more examples Monday, March 28, 2011 19

20. Before approaching the first step people Before trying to get the attention of the people of the first step, you must have something that may get attention. What can get attention is not necessarily a finished, perfectly working, fully tested product. A home made video of a mockup in some cases may be enough. Monday, March 28, 2011 20

21. Before getting to the first step people Most product ideas never pass step 0: they never get anything that can be presented. Or better: that gets presented. Monday, March 28, 2011 21

22. Step 1: attempting to enter the ziggurat Now we try to let the world know about our product / prototype. Monday, March 28, 2011 22

23. Entering the ziggurat What is the top of the ziggurat composed of? How do you enter the top of the ziggurat? Monday, March 28, 2011 23

24. Entering the ziggurat Start a blog A tweet channel A page on Facebook Tell your friends Talk about it at a local event like this Monday, March 28, 2011 24

25. Entering the ziggurat DOES NOT WORK* * Unless a miracle... What you need is… Monday, March 28, 2011 25

26. Entering the ziggurat “That's the press, baby, the press. And there is nothing you can do about it.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdE-qPv6kw Monday, March 28, 2011 26

27. Entering the ziggurat Seems obvious – for many its not so. The press- its scary. Win the fear and write. Monday, March 28, 2011 27

28. Entering the ziggurat Fearful because it is (a second) reality check. Examples from my experience: Bugsvoice – Fail Patapage -> Fail Licorize -> Passed Monday, March 28, 2011 28

29. And what IS the press? A blog with 5000 loyal followers in a field connected to what you dealing with can be more effective than a little blurb on Wired. Monday, March 28, 2011 29

30. Build a marketing story for the press Writing to the press is OK, but write about what? Monday, March 28, 2011 30

31. Marketing stories “Potential customers cannot buy what they cannot name” Journalists cannot write about something that has no novelty: you’ve got to serve them the concepts, the story, the novelty. A new feature is not a novelty. Monday, March 28, 2011 31

32. Marketing stories “Most people resist selling but enjoy buying”. If you manage to define the buy situation, victory is in your hands. Monday, March 28, 2011 32

33. Create the story You have to define an original context, inhabited not by your product, but by users. Once you created this story, here comes your product that saves all. You can also put in the story an evil, cunning wolf – the competitor – that does not fit well in the story, in today’s (fictional) happy life of the users. Your product, instead, fits perfectly. Monday, March 28, 2011 33

34. Marketing stories Example: With Licorize, we started telling the users (the press) again and again that their bookmarks are precious, that they have ideas that they should not lose. There is Delicious, of course, but the context is lost, the app is old, it integrates nothing, needs have evolved… And Licorize, in this story context, is your help, your savior. Monday, March 28, 2011 34

35. Marketing stories Teamwork “Alternative to Microsoft Project” – we tell a completely different story about managing work. Licorize “Beyond Delicious” This somehow puts you on the same status level of the competitor you are referring to. Referring to a well-known competitor, which in your story looks old and grumpy validates you, which is what lower level users need. Monday, March 28, 2011 35

36. First steps examples that worked and that didn’t Monday, March 28, 2011 36

37. Didn’t work: Patapage Monday, March 28, 2011 37 We were in love with the idea and the technology – but we had a wrong picture of the market i.e. of user needs. The idea was cool. Nobody needed it. We were so happy to introduce discontinuous innovation that we didn’t really ask whether anybody would be interested in it.

38. Didn’t work: Bugsvoice We were in love with the idea and the technology – but we had a wrong picture of the market i.e. of user needs. The idea was cool. Nobody needed it. We were so happy to introduce discontinuous innovation that we didn’t really ask whether anybody would be interested in it. Monday, March 28, 2011 38

39. Did work: Licorize Monday, March 28, 2011 39 First time that we started from imagining a need. Not a need of developers like us. Needs of web marketers bookmarking. Way, way simpler needs w.r.t. the convoluted product ideas we had before.

40. Did work: Licorize Result: 50 positive reviews (by meaningful sites) in 90 days, thousands of tweets. And they both keep coming. Reviewers fell in love with the story – which we had written for them. Also a bit of luck helped – Delicious crisis. Monday, March 28, 2011 40

41. Second step: getting to early adopters Having got some water at the first step, you have just started, not finished. Monday, March 28, 2011 41

42. False impression After the first step, this is something I told at an internal meeting: “One may get the false impression that we are done with Licorize. Technically, we probably almost are. But communication wise, we surely are not.” Monday, March 28, 2011 42

43. Stuck at the first step Being stuck at the first step is not great: lots of promises and few results. “fame and famine” How to figure your way into mainstream? Monday, March 28, 2011 43

44. Stuck at the first step My point is to focus on changing communication, not on sales. Achieving a few forced sales to visionaries does not alter the basic problem of Crossing the Chasm percolating to the second step. Monday, March 28, 2011 44

45. Why a story can help also the second step to start going Monday, March 28, 2011 45

46. Story for the second step “Resistance from inertia can come from commitment to status quo, fear of risk, lack of a compelling reason to buy.” Again the story idea can help you out of this. Maybe a new story. With a story you can also define the contest of your competition. By telling a good story, its you establishing the context. Monday, March 28, 2011 46

47. Story for the second step You have to distinguish: actions that increase (or create) conversion actions that keep you visible - though the two things are not completely separate Monday, March 28, 2011 47

48. Down the ziggurat How to appeal to non-technologists? The story, amplified and enriched by the press, will help a lot, because a wide spectrum of people can understand it. A feature based approach here will not help, instead, and this is likely one of the causes of failure to cross. The power of “word of mouth” has been greatly extended by “word of Twitter”. Monday, March 28, 2011 48

49. Down the ziggurat Important way to get down and wider in the ziggurat is to make others integrate you. Evernote, Balsamiq Mockups (actually he started by using only this “piggyback” technique), and in these days Instapaper, which already got mainstream by using this technique. Monday, March 28, 2011 49

50. Another line of change in time: user’s application’ life Monday, March 28, 2011 50 Here too we must provide different kinds of interaction and support to our customers.

51. Down the ziggurat Online services percolate very slowly. Amy Hoy with http://letsfreckle.com/ Took two years to get 10.000 $ month. Given that it is developed by 2, its ok. Monday, March 28, 2011 51

52. HELPING GRAVITY DO ITS JOB You can help gravity. Somehow. Monday, March 28, 2011 52

53. Use creativity to replace budgets To maintain the percolation and diffusion is a continuous battle. That is why being a startup as a side project does not work. You need full time dedication: new ideas, experiment and flexibility are the only thing that can beat budgets. Monday, March 28, 2011 53

55. Give away licenses / Premium access (gave 1600 for Licorize)Monday, March 28, 2011 54

56. Help gravity access to press can open other small doors, like having a product page on Wikipedia Show somehow that you are a market leader, or are becoming one: “pragmatists care about the company they are buying from” Monday, March 28, 2011 55

58. Supply several mapping models

59. Provide localizations

60. Run on “other” devices, browsers, machines.Monday, March 28, 2011 56

61. Help gravity “Used by Oracle” becomes more important (for some) than reviewed by Lifehacker. Going down the ziggurat, you need to give more certainties. That is why you should move from FAQ to user guide, from a flashy video giving the idea to one that shows it working in detail Monday, March 28, 2011 57

62. Step definitions depends on the product’s nature Monday, March 28, 2011 58

63. Games, micro-payments The “battle” technique can hardly be applied to games with micro-payments. Its all percolation there. For games there is no fight to replace other applications, the figth is for who will get the next layering. Monday, March 28, 2011 59

64. Early adopters may be enough Consider Minecraft: doing nothing for going down the ziggurat. Using gravity and word of mouth. Transparency is highly appreciated. Monday, March 28, 2011 60

65. 1,000 True Fans “A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.” http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php Depends on the industry. Monday, March 28, 2011 61

66. The Ziggurat Plan Make a Ziggurat Plan (not a business plan) -> how am I going to pass this step. A blog post with PPT will be online at http://pietro.open-lab.com Booklet of links: http://bit.ly/mziggu Monday, March 28, 2011 62