Get an early look at the marketing and customer research problems SparkToro exists to solve, beta product screenshots, use cases, and pricing/launch plans.
1. Exploring
Rand Fishkin | Cofounder & CEO | July 2019
A behind-the-scenes peek at SparkToroâs beta version:
what it does, how it works, who itâs for
2. Sections in this presentation:
I. What problems is SparkToro built to solve? (3)
II. Who is SparkToro for?
III. A look at SparkToroâs three core functions
IV. Example use cases
V. Access, pricing, and feedback
4. Marketing 101
Your
Company
(or client)
The Right
Customers
For Your
Product
Where They
Engage,
Listen, Read,
Watch, etc.
In order to reach
this audience
You need to do marketing
in these places
5. The Core IssueâŠ
Your
Company
(or client)
The Right
Customers
For Your
Product
Where They
Engage,
Listen, Read,
Watch, etc.
Figuring out these
connections is incredibly
time-consuming, expensive,
and worst, inaccurate.
6. How Itâs Done Today:
The Right
Customers
For Your
Product
Surveys:
Informal and formal, with varying
degrees of cost and accuracy, but
always a long lead time, and
frustratingly low response rates.
Interviews:
A key part of customer research,
but incredibly hard to scale, and
self-reported engagement is rife
with misinformation.
Online Sleuthing:
Visiting hundreds of your customersâ social accounts or websites
to see what they follow, engage with, and listen to â itâs a good
way to learn the field, but immensely time-consuming and
problematically biased by the people you pick.
7. What if, insteadâŠ
The Right
Customers
For Your
Product
Audience Intelligence
With a single search, get access to
aggregated data pulled from tens
of thousands of public web and
social profiles for any audience
What this group of peopleâŠ
âŠlistens to
âŠreads
âŠwatches
âŠfollows
âŠengages with
âŠuses to describe
themselves
âŠattends
âŠtalks about
8. How Does SparkToro Do That?
Twitter
Profile
We crawl billions of
web pages and social
accounts, then build
connections between
those whose profiles
match. This gives us
a significant amount
of data for each
profile in our index.
Website
LinkedIn
Page
Facebook
Page
Instagram
YouTube
Profile
Medium
Blog
We DO NOT use any
personally identifiable
information. Instead,
we aggregate &
anonymize data like:
Bio + job title
About page content
Websites shared & linked-to
Social accounts followed
Words and phrases used
Hashtags and topics posted
A Single
SparkToro
Profileâs
Data
9. How Does SparkToro Do That?
With 70 million+ profiles,
we can, in seconds,
process thousands of
profiles that match nearly
any criteria, and extract the
most-commonly shared
attributes of that group.
4,424 profiles that talk about
âyogaâ in Portland, OR
Most common words used
Most followed accounts
Most shared websites
Most listened-to podcasts
Most common hashtags
Etc.
10. Now, We Can Answer Questions Like:
What Instagram accounts are popular with marine biologists?
What podcasts do teachers in Canada listen to most?
What hashtags are popular with wildlife photographers vs.
portrait photographers right now?
What words and phrases do fly fishing enthusiasts use to
describe themselves?
Where are the biggest geographic concentrations of people
who talk about vinyasa yoga?
# of matching profiles in our
database (as of 7/2/19)
1,328
85,827
21,012
100,682
3,580
12. We Can Search These 70M+ Profiles in Several Ways:
Content of their social
& web posts/shares
Words & phrases
from their bios/titles
What/who they follow
What they share, link-
to, and follow
Tags used in social &
web posts/shares
13. Real TalkâŠ
I hate when founders say âour solution can work for any problem!â Thatâs never
the truth. So letâs get serious about where SparkToro works well and doesnât.
SparkToroâs Audience Data Works Well When:
We have 300+ profiles that match the audience youâre targeting
(more if the audienceâs behavior is very diverse, fewer if very similar â just like election polling)
Your audience is clearly definable and self-describes using a few, searchable words or
phrases
(SparkToroâs great for reaching âbartendersâ or âmarine biologistsâ â they use those words to describe themselves; itâs not so great if
youâre targeting âhomebuyers seeking new, energy-efficient windowsâ because that audience wonât self-describe in a searchable way)
OR your audience talks about the interests/topics that identifies them as potential customers
(Great for reaching people who are fans of DIY, 3D-printing because they tend to talk about that! But, not so great for targeting âparents
buying their childrenâs first computerâ because people rarely broadcast that intent)
Your audience uses English in their online social + web profiles
(we do index some non-English profiles, but the vast majority of our dataset is English-centric in this first version)
15. SparkToro is Built Primarily for Marketers
Content & SEO Pros
âą SparkToroâs tools can
turn days of frustrating
research into seconds
of at-a-glance lists that
will show you precisely
which publications and
people reach your ideal
customers.
âą Outreach, guest content,
and amplification
sourcing just got WAY
easier.
PR + Social Media Pros
âą Where to get coverage
& whom to engage with
is all too often a battle of
opinions and personal
experience.
âą SparkToroâs tool turns
frustrating arguments
about where to reach
any given audience into
productive, data-
driven plans.
Marketing Strategists
âą When planning your
marketing strategy,
the ability to research
dozens of audiences
in seconds with
instantly-applicable
insights is invaluable.
âą So, too, is the ability
to call BS on a bad
marketing plan!
Advertising Professionals
âą Where to invest beyond
Google & Facebook is a
constant quandary, but
also a huge opportunity â
because thatâs where your
competition isnât playing
âą SparkToro provides cold,
hard, audience numbers
for any searchable group,
so you donât waste budget
in the wrong places.
16. But, Lots of Other Folks Can Benefit, Too
CEOs & Founders
âą Knowing more about
your target market before
you make key decisions
(which customers to
pursue, what products to
build, go-to-market plans,
etc.) can vastly improve
your results.
âą SparkToro makes
previously inaccessible
customer research just
a few keystrokes away.
Sales & Mktg Leaders
âą Your marketing plan is
based on where you
believe your target
customers (and their
influencers) engage and
what they care about.
âą SparkToro adds
crucial, customer-
centric data to your
strategy, so you can
prioritize the right
channels and tactics.
Authors & Creators
âą Where do people who
want your work spend
time, who do they listen
to, what do they follow?
âą Figuring that out is a
time-consuming, often
ignored part of every
creatorâs process. But,
getting your work out
there matters.
âą SparkToro makes that
research process easy.
Product Managers
âą You need your finger
on the pulse of your
audience â what they
talk about, pay
attention to, and
engage with.
âą SparkToro gives you
fast access to a wealth
of customer research
that would otherwise
take months to
assemble.
18. Our Beta Launch Features Three, Connected Tools:
Search for any audience and
see shared characteristics
about them, along with
who/what/where they
follow/listen-to/engage-with
19. Plug in any two groups and see the overlap between them, and the shared
vs. unique characteristics they possess. These are particularly useful for
marketing strategy presentations and pitch meetings
Our Beta Launch Features Three, Connected Tools:
20. Enter your own website/social handle, a
rivalâs, or anyoneâs, and see information
about their audienceâs characteristics and
behavior â killer for competitive intel and
comparisons.
Our Beta Launch Features Three, Connected Tools:
21. Audience Intelligence
Start by choosing which way to research the
audience about whom youâd like to gather data.
Then enter a descriptor,
a hashtag, a website, or
a social account, and hit
âSearch.â
22. From these 15,541 profiles
that recently talked about
âcraft cocktailsâ on their
social + web profiles,
SparkToro extracts a
boatload of statistically
sound, anonymized,
aggregated, actionable data.
23. You can use these tabs
to view lists of social
accounts this audience
follows, websites they
visit, podcasts they
listen to, and shared
characteristics.
By default, SparkToro
orders the accounts,
websites, and podcasts
an audience follows by
the percent of the
audience doing so. In
this example, 25% of
those who talk about
âcraft cocktailsâ are
following or engaging
with Imbibe Magazineâs
social accounts.
24. Compare Audiences
Enter any two audiences and hit
Compare Audiences (you can
also compare different types of
queries, e.g. âfrequently talks
aboutâ vs. âdescribe themselves
asâ).
25. The comparison report
shows characteristics and
following behavior of the two
groups, and how they
intersect (or donât). E.G.
People interested in âcraft
cocktailsâ have very different
online behavior to those who
have âbartenderâ in their bio
or job title.
27. Traffic data (via
Jumpshot), social
followings, commonly
used words, phrases,
and hashtags are all
here. Use this for
competitive intelligence,
industry comparisons,
or analysis of your own
audiences.
29. Empowering Creators with Glowforge
The Problem
Where can Glowforge do brand marketing, PR,
press outreach, and influencer marketing to
reach people who might buy their machines.
The Solution
Glowforge surveyed their customers and asked
them to describe themselves and why they
bought and used the 3D laser printer.
With those responses in hand, SparkToro can
do an amazing things.
30. Etsy Makers
Perhaps not surprisingly,
many Glowforge customers
sell on Etsy. And lots of them
use the words âvisit my Etsy
shopâ (or a variation) in their
profile. One SparkToro
search later, Glowforge can
see exactly who those sellers
follow and amplify.
31. Podcasts: A High Opportunity Channel?
An overlap in Glowforgeâs customers and those
who follow the âNation of Makersâ campaign,
social account, and events yields a ton of
opportunities for creative marketing, e.g.
sponsoring or being a guest on podcasts like
these (which reach a high percent of potential
Glowforge customers)
32. Making Text.io a Recruiterâs Must-Have
The Problem
Textio offers an amazing API and set of tools to
help make language more inclusive, less biased,
and more effective. One of the key use cases is
for recruiters creating and editing job postings â
the right tweaks can massively boost the number,
quality, and diversity of applicants.
The Solution
Reaching recruiters is hard, especially if you
donât already know the industry intimately.
Thankfully, SparkToro can show Textioâs
marketing team exactly where this audience is
on the web, what they listen-to, read, follow,
and consume.
33. What Recruiters Visit
Some of these sites are already
known to Textio, but others,
especially the more niche, smaller-
traffic sites, are ripe with opportunity
for advertising, content partnerships,
guest contributions, and links that
could send traffic and boost search
rankings.
34. Once a Campaign Works
If Textio runs a campaign with
Ere.net and finds it effective, more
opportunities are just a search away!
35. Amplifying Great Content to the Right People
The Problem
FreshChalkâs Adam Doppelt put an extraordinary amount
of work into crawling 150,000 small business websites
and extracting numerous, fascinating insights, data
points, and correlations with their performance in Google
Maps & search rankings. Unfortunately, Adam doesnât
have a good sense for who to reach out to in order to
amplify this exceptional work.
The Solution
Knowing that heâs got a lot of data of interest to SEO
professionals, Adam can search SparkToro to uncover
where that audience engages, who they follow, and
what theyâre amplifying so he can effectively target his
own content outreach campaign.
36. Key Amplification Targets Uncovered
A few SparkToro searches later, Adamâs got dozens of high
quality targets that reach exactly the people and
publications he needs. He sends some email introductions,
shares his work, takes the input of these thought leaders,
and has a remarkable launch.
37. Boom!
Adamâs social and email outreach results in coverage and
links from dozens of websites in the local, small-business
marketing world. And when he shares the next part of the
study (on the impact of web hosts), he can repeat the
process!
Screenshots from Mozâs Link Explorer
38. The Competitive Worlds of Skincare & Makeup
The Problem
Glossierâs brand is beloved, but expanding
inorganically to new audiences has massive
costs due to entrenched competition.
The Solution
Using SparkToro, Glossier can uncover
undiscovered, smaller, niche sources of
influence to reach their beauty-focused
audience.
39. Small But Powerful
Glossierâs previously effective
campaigns with sites like WWD and
BusinessofFashion are vastly less
expensive than those with bigger
players like Vogue, Harpers, or
InStyle. Digging into those sitesâ
audiences can reveal more
opportunities to market smarter than
the competition.
40. Avoid Bad Investments
Too many brands spend big on
partnerships and advertising because
they think itâll reach the right audience
(but doesnât). With SparkToro,
Glossier can know, in advance, what
percent of an influencerâs audience
are likely to be a match for them.
E.G. Smaller audiences, but a higher
percent of the people Glossier wants
to reach.
Versus: Bigger audiences that donât
have the same level of reach to that
group.
41. Finding New Fans of the Theatre
The Problem
Reaching new theatre-goers whoâll make the
trek to Southern Oregon is no easy task. But
the OSF needs to find the next generation of
play and musical fans to continue its
remarkable work.
The Solution
By understanding their existing, passionate
audience on the web, the OSF can identify
hitherto-unknown affinities and use those to
uncover new opportunities to reach a theatre-
likely audience.
42. OSF on the Web
The web audience for OSF
tends to be younger, more
artistic in their careers, and
follows numerous national-
theatre-related accounts.
43. The Usual Suspects
As with many SparkToro
searches, the top results
are relatively obvious (if
you already know the field
well). These sources are
likely expensive to
advertise with, hard to get
into, and (because of NYC-
centric geography) might
not be the best choices. But
what if we scroll downâŠ
44. Something Different
These sources of influence
are unique, and many of them
might offer opportunities for
editorials, press coverage,
guest content, advertising,
sponsorship, or partnerships
that could expose the OSFâs
work to an exciting, new
audience.
45. Social Influence
The social accounts writer/
theatregoers follow is not what
youâd expect⊠And might reveal
some exciting opportunities for
cross-promotion, amplification, or
partnership (especially given the
OSFâs existing connections)
46. Competitive Intel
By plugging in other regional theatres
in the Northwest, OSF can see where
their followers engage, and consider
advertising and marketing campaigns
to reach them in those places.
E.G. Inviting the writers/critics from
these publications to Ashland for
some shows might be a killer tactic.
48. How Can You Get Access?
STEP ONE: Visit SparkToroâs âWhat Weâre Buildingâ page and enter your email
49. How Can You Get Access?
STEP TWO: Weâll send you an email
link to take a short survey
50. How Can You Get Access?
STEP THREE: During the beta period (July/August), weâll ramp up to a few hundred beta test users.
If beta feedback is positive, weâll likely launch in August or September.
If beta users are less excited, weâll make the product more robust before launching publicly.
51. Preliminary Pricing (Likely to Change)
Tier Price
# of Searches
per Month
# of Results
per Search
Custom
List Creation
Export
Functions
Free $0 5 3 No N/A
Basic $175/month 100 50 Yes
Up to 50
rows
Premium $250/month 400 All Yes All
Unlimited $500/month
Unlimited
(single account access)
All Yes All
Agency $Variable
Unlimited
(avail to multiple accounts)
All Yes All
7-Day Unlimited
$350/week
(non-recurring)
Unlimited
(single account for one week)
All Yes All
Weâre offering a very unusual feature in SaaS pricing: one-time billing for a week of unlimited use. This is because, in our research, we
found many folks only do this type of customer research once per 6 months or year. And it helps agencies with project-based billing, too.
52. Weâd LOVE Your Feedback!
Was something in this presentation unclear?
Is there critical information missing?
Do you have use-cases for SparkToro that we havenât considered?
Or, any broad advice for us about the product, data, or launch?