A Systems Approach to
Startup Marketing
A solution to random acts of
marketing
April Dunford
@aprildunford
RocketWatcher.com

April Dunford
As a marketing exec:
6 startups: 4 launches, $1B revenue, $2B
acquisitions
3 big companies: 2 product line
launches, $3B revenue, 8 acquisitions (buy
side)
As a Marketing Bon Vivant/Gallivanter:
project-based marketing
work, advisor, instructor, investor, coffee/be
er drinker

How does an engineer
become a career marketer?

Step 1: Get friend to give you a marketing job
Step 2: Don’t get fired
(Pro tip: Step 2 is way harder than Step 1)

What I learned reading 100’s
marketing books plus taking a
ton of marketing courses:

Marketing theory
is useless
(until after you know what you’re doing)

The 5th P of Marketing:
Pissed off!

Meanwhile:
“Hack me some $$,
Growth Hacker!!”

So I started doing
“marketing” stuff.

The Cycle of Marketing Meh
Marketing
Fashion
Assessment*
Select
Improve
tactics
Measure Execute
* Where you look at what everyone else is doing

1. No relationship or consistency
between the tactics
2. Assumptions were always a problem
3. I couldn’t always answer “stupid”
questions

But sometimes I could

Can great
startup marketing
be modeled?

Inputs
3 aspects of customer knowledge
Who they are
How they view solutions
How they buy stuff

Customer Worksheet
Segment 1, 2, 3
Company Characteristics:
Geography, size, industry
Stuff they do, type of customer they serve, how they sell, their
ecosystem, budgets, risk tolerance, power structure, etc.
Consumer/Decision Maker 1, 2, 3:
Characteristics:
demographics, education, skills, interests, motivations, goals
Pain:
list of things that drives this group crazy
Where they hang out:
Social networks, communities, associations/groups, events
Where they find out about stuff:
Search engines, word of mouth, peers, media outlets, blogs,
experts, influencers/famous people

Offering Worksheet
(Customer Perspective)
What do we do?
What market are we in?
Competitive Alternatives:
Examples: Do nothing, manual effort, Word/Excel,
competitive product
Key Differentiated Points of Value
When compared to the alternatives above the specific
value you bring that the others don’t.
Proof
Customer references, 3rd party
reviews, statistics, metrics, expert endorsements,

Sales Process
Consider-
Awareness Purchase Renewal
ation

Buying Process
Accelerators
Knowing Knowing Knowing Why Using and Knowing I
the cost of the Value the value purchase enjoy the can’t do
not solving of solving of your now? offering without the
the the solution offering
problem problem
No Re-
Need Eval Buy Enjoy
Need new
Current Value not Not I might Bad Decided
solution compelling knowing change service, there was
good Risks too how to my mind Bad user no need
enough high evaluate Too much experience Move to
Great but $ Not using other
not for me solution
Friction points

Tactics
Selected based on:
Who you need to reach
Where you can reach them
Stages where the friction is
What you need to do to move them to the
next stage

Operations
Plans based on selected tactics
Email marketing plan/process/calendar
Paid traffic plan/process
Content plan/calendar
Social media plan/calendar
Media/Influencer relations plan/calendar
…

Metrics
How prospects are flowing through the
buying process

Analysis
What conclusions can you draw?
How do these impact the inputs?

The Circle of Marketing Awesome
Project plans
Tactical
Execution
Customer
Offering Inputs Outputs Metrics
Buying Process
Analysis
Conclusions

Thanks!
@aprildunford
RocketWatcher.com