Startupfest 2013 - Reach Hacking: Digital marketing tactics for strategic startups - Blake Robinson
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Herbert Simon observed that in a world full of information, attention is the scarcest resource. So how do you get your new venture noticed? In this session, serial entrepreneurs and social media savants Blake Robinson (Annalect, Rackspace, TechCrunch) and Margaret Francis (ExactTarget, Scout Labs, Razorfish) take you on a deep dive into promoting your business. From getting your online presence and collection platforms ready, to introducing tracking and getting the most from analytics, to finding the right ways to engage with your audience, this is a can't-miss workshop for every startup that needs to reach, and scale, its market.
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Startupfest 2013 - Reach Hacking: Digital marketing tactics for strategic startups - Blake Robinson
- 1. REACH HACKING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION STRATEGIES AND ANALYTICS FOR STARTUPS
- 2. GET READY
- 5. BE SUCCINCT
- 13. DESIGN MATTERS
- 22. MOST POWERFUL ON THE INTERNET!
- 35. BE CONTACTABLE
- 39. GET SET
- 40. Recorded Future
- 41. Recorded Future
- 42. Twitter!
- 43. Twitter! Now with Analytics
- 44. Bitly
- 45. Topsy
- 46. Topsy
- 49. CRM
- 50. GO
- 51. WHO ARE YOU?
- 53. SCHEDULING TIME
- 60. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD CONTENT
- 67. Goal setting is a useful exercise • Find users / customers: Get 100 legitimate prospects in your email list • Prepare to raise money: Target 10 firms and their principals/ analysts/ associates • Connect with influencers: Get 10 relevant people following you • Network with peers: Connect with 10 people in your field. Establish a relationship
- 69. Owned • Research TW & FB hashtags relevant to your company • Create and circulate content using the same hashtags • Cross post: TW, FB, Tumblr • Comment on relevant blogs only where you add to the conversation – Don’t shill – Add links to other relevant conversations, not just your own site • Follow everyone back, to start
- 71. Paid • Use promoted products from Twitter & Facebook to narrowly target campaigns that are highly, highly relevant – Have a clear call to action – Link back to that site – Few hundred dollars in media spend • Critical audience and awareness building tool • Look for domains in GA and cultivate contacts at those companies
- 73. • Attend in person events and carry a card with with all your info on it. Social is not just FB. It’s “network” in all dimensions • Research all the people who sign up for your list, to follow you, who comment on your FB page or blog or whatever – Run them through LinkedIn & find out who they are – Try Topsy, Little Bird, to see who the influential accounts are similar to the ones that follow you. • Follow everyone back, to start – Use lists to filter noise based on your reseach • Go interact with the people most like the ones you want to reach. – Thank them for the follow. DM/ Email/ Comment l is fine – Reach out to them, start interacting Earned
Editor's Notes
- BLAKE TO TALK
- So what do you need to so, as a startup, to maximize your promotional impact? That’s what this first section is about. Getting ready. Your effort at promotion will be wasted if you don’t cover these basic steps first.
- Can you tell what this company does? No one can. It’s the worst website ever.
- If you are one of these people you can get away with that website. If not, listen up.
- BE SUCCINCT. IF I CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT IN 10 SECONDS I’m moving on
- Even Biz & Ev treat their current project sites differently. There’s a short explanation above the fold, larger images, larger text.
- There’s a product name and explanation.
- I can sign up for this new effort, or see how it works. There’s a clear call to action. Both of these sites pass the 10 second rule. If you don’t have a demo ready, fine. Collect an email address for when you do. More on that later.
- Three step explanation. Perfect. Got it.
- Here are some even more compelling examples of startups whose purpose and value is totally understandable in the first 10 seconds.
- Notice the big, colored buttons with calls to action? Well done.
- Not that there’s a trend in big hero photographs on homepages or anything.
- Which leads me to the next point: Design matters. It really does. I swear we will get to promoting your startup via social media, but before you invest that effort, you absolutely need to be worthy of promotion.
- How much do you think this site makes per year? Surprise surprise: Over a million dollars. How much do you think revenue is increasing YOY?Not a surprise: It’s not really increasing much. This page is optimized for Google search word “foam mattress” It hit its high point in revenue about when you think it did- some years ago It doesn’t inspire the modern bed buyer It’s a commodity business Capture data to follow up with users Have a privacy policy / TOS Include your social media handles
- This site inspires the modern bed buyer And their margins on online bed purchases are likewise very different So are you a commodity business?
- Look at the role design has played in recent startup success storiesAll these pictures were already on the internet Laying them out in a visually consistent way- applying design- created a whole new audience for the content
- Another design success
- More hero photographs
- I love the design of this startup site Moral of the story: Highlight design. Find a student graphic designer, try out one of the crowdsource design sitesWrite a brief and post it 99Designs, CrowdspringOffer shares if you don’t have money
- I am a fan of vowels in web addressesIf I can’t spell it, remember it, if it’s confusing I’m already annoyed So think about your URL
- How are we supposed to pronounce this? And what does this product do?
- Note: Do not say you are the most powerful anything on the internet. Unless you are provably, demonstrably, Scoble says so most powerful. You are inviting derision.
- $100K for the URL later, Mogolus is Livestream. Tell me that is not more memorable, descriptive yet expansive, sayable, spellable, findable, pronounceable- you name it. Biggest marketing expense the company ever had. Startups I have been involved in, this has been a major expense and worth every penny.
- The site now uses photos and lets the content speak for itself. Much better.
- Likewise, your social media addresses matter. These should not be too hard if you nailed the URL.
- This startup is about using three words to describe any set of geo coordinates.
- Ditto on Twitter. Look at their updates- they’re newbies!
- Ditto on Facebook.
- Ditto on google+, which they kind of need to get better at fast.
- So now you look good. Are you ready to promote? No. Two more points.
- Fancy may just have got a big round, but I would not recommend this form. I would get an email. Twitter and Facebook are cool, but not addressable.
- Boom. This is the join/ get updates/ get started/ get info form right here.
- If someone wants to contact you, let them give you an email address
- Even these guys had an email signup on their page. Put the addresses in a google doc or gmail or salesforce starter edition or write them on notecards or whatever, but get them!
- And let them email you!
- Thank you Branch. I can email you.
- Thank you Fiksu. I can chat, email, call- which is what Coke, Zynga, & more probably want to do.
- OpenDNS. So professional. Complete data, totally transparent.
- BLAKE TO TALK
- BLAKE TO TALK
- Ok so Parse rocks, just to get that out there, so not surprising Facebook just bought itBut note: Ilya is a human being with a handle Parse is a company with a handleYou should probably keep your personal 4square checkins and your company presence separate Remember what3words?
- So you have your handles and your analytics and everything ready to goWho has time?
- This is what a typical white collar worker schedule looks like
- Your hopefully looks more like this Add a 15 minute block to it, once a week, three times a weekPhysically schedule it, asana it, JIRA it, whatever you need to doMake consistent time for social participation and promotion
- Here’s a startup CEO that does this wellRob Bailey from DatasiftHe promotes his company from time to time but is also just an interesting social citizen
- Recruiting is a great reason to keep personal and business separate. People know you who don’t know your company, or want to. Jobs are always interesting
- David Ulevitch, Ceo of the aforementioned OpenDNSBlogs consistently. Sometimes about industry matter
- Sometimes about his personal soundtrack, or just loving his work
- BLAKE TO TALK
- OK admit it: You are reading this chart right now and not even listening to me Cuddling & church = gentle sexSmoking & piercings = rough sexWhat a surprise. But still, compelling content
- I love this blog. It has data, big data, infographics, relevanceIt has interesting contentTwitterers break up faster
- And are more likely to masturbate today. This is awesome content.
- Shifting gears so we can all focus again. Gnip. Great content. So shareable, so engrossing with the visualizations and interviews
- Simply Measured. Always timely and topical. THEY have content that is READY TO PROMOTE!
- It’s best to start with an objective
- Pick one of these. Which one do you need to tackle first? Up to you. But pick one. Setting an arbitrary goal is a useful exercise. 10 influencers, 100. 1 investor, 100. Pick a number and see if you can actually work to achieve it.
- BLAKE TO TALK
- BLAKE TO TALK
- BLAKE TO TALK