Three Main Marketing Types
Concept / Idea Elevation • Broad / Market Making • Success = ??? 2. Brand Positioning • brand associated with concept • success is hard to measure 3. Direct Response • Product in Front of Ideal Customers • Success = They Take Appropriate Action (sign-up, purchase, trial, etc.)
Getting your product in front of your customer.
I’ve got a Dirty Little Secret Stick around… I’ll share it at the end
Partnerships • Intermediaries (VARs/Distributors/Affiliates) • Joint Ventures (co-marketing, offers, etc.) • Integrations
Advertising • PPC/CPM • Display Networks • Content Amplification • Billboards on the 101
Content • Blogs • News • Webinars (SPOILER ALERT!) • Whitepapers • Books (e or otherwise) • Data • Apps • Community
Outreach • Cold Emails • Cold Calling • Direct Postal Mail
Virality • Use-based (communication, social networks, etc.) • Invitation-based • Referrals (incentivized invitations) • Powered By / Widgets
Don’t START with Tactics. That’s where most people go wrong.
Start with your Customer!
Do this first.
Why Focus on an Ideal Customer? • FOMO is telling you NOT to do this. • You must know your Ideal Customer Better than they Know Themselves
“Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937)
Ideal Customer Define ➔Find ➔ Compel ➔ Convert
There is no Universal definition of Ideal Customer • This is a living, breathing “definition”…
Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
Ready
Willing
Able
Profitable
Expansion Potential
Virality
Who’s your Less-Than-Ideal Customer?
Ideal Customer Find
Talk to your Customers & Prospects
Not all Competitors are the same
How to Find your Competitors’ Customers
Ask the Customers of your Competitors
Look for Patterns • In bad-guy hacking, this is called the "Watering hole” attack…
Do they read this magazine, or listen to that podcast?
The patterns will start to give you insights into how to get in front of your audience or what distribution channels you’ll use
Speak directly to your Ideal Customer
Based on the channel, the IC, the situation, offer, etc.
And once hooked, the secret to getting them to take action
When you do what we covered today: • You don’t have to test as much • Testing really is only for optimization • Trial and Error goes away • Even “ugly” designs and bad copy (relatively speaking) can work when highly-targeted.
2. Dan McGaw - KISSmetrics - @danielmcgaw
!
Dan is the Director of Marketing at KISSmetrics, where he
get’s the opportunity to help the best marketers in the world
measure their marketing and business efforts. Prior to
KISSmetrics, Dan was VP of growth at Code School, where he
helped the company grow to over 500k users and $400k+ in
monthly revenue.
Lincoln Murphy - Sixteen Ventures - @lincolnmurphy
!
Over the past 7 years, Lincoln Murphy, Managing Director of
Sixteen Ventures, has helped 300+ SaaS companies - as well as
thousands more through his writing, workshops, and
speaking - accelerate their growth by optimizing the
Customer Lifecycle, from customer acquisition to retention.
He’s been featured in Fast Company, Inc., VentureBeat, and
GrowthHacker.tv.
7. Se ing the Stage
3 Types of Marketing,
a brief History Lesson, and Tactics!
8. Three Main Marketing Types
We’re focused on #3 today…
1. Concept / Idea Elevation
• Broad / Market Making
• Success = ???
2. Brand Positioning
• brand associated with concept
• success is hard to measure
3. Direct Response
• Product in Front of Ideal Customers
• Success = They Take Appropriate Action (sign-up, purchase, trial, etc.)
11. I’ve got a Dirty Li le Secret
Stick around… I’ll share it at the end
12. Tactics of Distribution
Including, but not limited to.
• Partnerships
• Intermediaries (VARs/Distributors/Affiliates)
• Joint Ventures (co-marketing, offers, etc.)
• Integrations
13. Tactics of Distribution
Including, but not limited to.
• Advertising
• PPC/CPM
• Display Networks
• Content Amplification
• Billboards on the 101
14. Tactics of Distribution
Including, but not limited to.
Content
• Blogs
• News
• Webinars (SPOILER ALERT!)
• Whitepapers
• Books (e or otherwise)
• Data
• Apps
• Community
16. Tactics of Distribution
Including, but not limited to.
• Virality
• Use-based (communication, social networks, etc.)
• Invitation-based
• Referrals (incentivized invitations)
• Powered By / Widgets
20. Why Focus on an Ideal Customer?
• FOMO is telling you NOT to do this.
• You must know your Ideal Customer Be er than they Know
Themselves
21. Why Focus on an Ideal Customer?
• “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the
customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937)
• Compelling > Convincing
• People don’t buy from you because they understand what it is you
do… but because you understand what they do!
!
24. Ideal Customer is Situational
• There is no Universal definition of Ideal Customer
• This is a living, breathing “definition”… you’ll come
back to it o en
• It is specific to:
• Your Situation
• Your company / product / offer / campaign
25. Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Define the Situation
• Is this for your product, an offer, your business, a
new market?
• Define the Time Frame
• 1, 3, 6 months?
• Be Specific
26. Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Know where you are today in the context of this situation
• How do you know?
• What metric(s) are you measuring?
27. Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Know Where you’re Going (Situational Objective)
• How will you know if you’re successful then?
• How will you know if you’re on the right track along the
way?
• Land Grab, User #, Revenue Goal, etc.
• You may want to have an idea about what you’re willing
to spend to achieve the incremental bump in that metric
(CAC, for example).
29. Ideal Customer Profile
Key Inputs
Ready
• They have a problem they need solved / opportunity to
take advantage of
• They know they have the problem / opportunity
• The problem / opportunity is acute … there’s a sense of
urgency you can take advantage of
30. Willing
• They’re ready to solve that problem by taking action
• They’re exploring options to solve that problem
• There’s a Catalyst: M&A, Investments, Bankruptcy, hiring/
firing, RFP, etc.
Ideal Customer Profile
Key Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
31. Able
• They have the means to solve the problem
• They have the authority to solve the problem
Ideal Customer Profile
Key Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
32. Profitable
• This means it’s cost-effective to get in front of them
• On-Boarding & Support
• Estimated Lifetime
• Buying Cycle / Process
Ideal Customer Profile
Secondary Inputs
33. Expansion Potential
• Up-Sell / Cross-Sell
• Potential / Front-load
• Immediate ASP Boost
• A high CHI/NPS is critical here
Ideal Customer Profile
Secondary Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
34. Virality
• $1 CAC / 2 = $0.50
• Intra & Inter-Company
• WOM vs. Use-Based Virality
• Of course, ensuring they’re happy is key
• Network Effect = Built-in Social Proof
• Enterprise Dept vs. SME, Agency vs. Enterprise, etc.
Ideal Customer Profile
Secondary Inputs
35. Would Your Ideal Customer:
• Know they’re your ideal customer if they looked at your
site?
• Feel comfortable using your product or service?
• Feel like your service was designed for them?
• Tell their friends or co-workers about your product?
Ideal Customer Profile
Sanity Check #1
36. Who’s your Less-Than-Ideal Customer?
• Would they think they’re your ideal customer?
• Make sure you’re not going where they are!
• Then make sure you’re not actively a racting them
Ideal Customer - Define
Ideal Customer Profile
Sanity Check #2
37. LOG IN WITH GOOGLE
Start Your Free KISSmetrics Trial
39. • Don’t think like your customer… think about your
customer
• Know…
• how your customers try and buy products in your
category
• where they look for information
• who they trust
• how they consume marketing
Ideal Customer Characteristics
40. • Customer development
• Primary market research (stuff you do yourself)
• Secondary market research (stuff other people have done
that you get access to)
Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
41. Talk to your Customers & Prospects
• Current Customers
• Past (Cancelled) Customers
• Prospects that didn’t convert from your Free Trial
• Those in your nurturing/indoctrination process
• Don’t talk to Prospects about this (yet)… focus on
converting them
Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
42. Not all Competitors are the same
• Critical they share the same customers
• Same Product Category
• Immediately Adjacent to your Product category
• Same price/complexity level (or at least the same
customers)
Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
43. How to Find your Competitors’ Customers
• They’re named in testimonials and case studies on the
competitor site
• They mentioned the app in their LinkedIn profile
• They ‘re a member of an app-specific group on LinkedIn
• They have a certification from the vendor
• Alexa…
Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
45. Ask the Customers of your Competitors:
• about other competitors they may have evaluated (and
why they chose the one they did)
• who else they trust in the industry, (consultants, advisors,
analysts, etc.)
• what blogs they read, if they watch videos, etc.
• did they buy direct or through a distributor/VAR/app
store
Your Competitors’ Ideal Customer
46. Digging for Gold…
• You’ll learn about analysts, consultants, and associations
from whom you can buy secondary research. Protip: you
can also use them for primary research
• Look for associations your ideal customers belong to –
both industry-specific and wider-scope associations – and
events (local or national) they a end.
• Glean information from the event marketing sites… or
actually a end the event, too.
Infiltrate their Ecosystem
47. Look for Pa erns
• In bad-guy hacking, this is called the "Watering hole”
a ack… go where they are and where they’re most likely
to let their guard down because of an implied trust
• If everyone I talk to says they read XYZ’s blog or buys
research from ABC Firm, then I probably need to figure
out a way to piggyback on those folks somehow to get in
front of my ideal customer.
Social Engineering
48. Look for Pa erns
• Do they read this magazine, or listen to that podcast? Do
they go to this event or trust that consultant? Are there
ways to use that knowledge to get in front of my Ideal
Customer? Ads, Guest Blog Posts, Distribution Deals,
Email Drops…
• Does it seem like most buy through intermediaries such
as VARs or Distributors? Do they seem to use corporate
app stores? How can I get my app listed in those
corporate stores or be included in distribution deals with
VARs?
Listen first… act second.
49. • The pa erns will start to give you insights into how to get
in front of your audience or what distribution channels
you’ll use
• While sometimes the medium is the message, at the very
least it will dictate what the message looks like, what it
says, what the CTA is, etc.
• So there is no “best” distribution channel for all SaaS
apps… there are only “best” distribution channels for each
Ideal Customer type.
Look for Pa erns
51. Speak directly to your Ideal Customer
• “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the
customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937)
• Having an Ideal Customer in mind will dictate:
• the language, images, copy, and design you use
• the emotion you invoke or tap into
• the sense of urgency you can take advantage of or
produce
How to Cut Through the Noise
52. Based on the channel, the IC, the situation, offer, etc.
• Timely (Example: event planning SaaS)
• Congruent w/ catalyst
• Doesn’t have to conform to “rules” (except those of the
network/partner)
• How can we evoke an emotional response, even in a B2B
se ing, that’s congruent with the context we’re working
within?
• This gets their a ention and Compels them to Action
Medium is the Message
54. And once hooked, the secret to ge ing them to take action
• Continue the narrative from first touch to conversion
• Different engagement methods for different cohorts
(source a ribution)
• Know what steps need to be taken to move them to
conversion and orchestrate the process… don’t leave it up
to chance
• Ask for the sale; make them an offer!
Conversion Rate Optimization
56. 1. Define your Ideal Customer
2. Understand the conversation already taking place in
their mind
3. Figure Out the Best Way to Get In Front of Them
(channel)
4. Decide on the “hook” that injects you into that
conversation and get’s them to take action (tactic)
5. Continue the narrative through conversion (funnel)
Distribution Hacks - Review
57. When you do what we covered today:
• You don’t have to test as much
• Testing really is only for optimization
• Trial and Error goes away
• Even “ugly” designs and bad copy (relatively speaking) can
work when highly-targeted
The Dirty Li le Secret