How to get creative with marketing when paid channels are too expensive or customers aren’t...
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Transcript of How to get creative with marketing when paid channels are too expensive or customers aren’t...
H O W T O G E T C R E AT I V E W I T H M A R K E T I N G W H E N PA I D C H A N N E L S A R E T O O E X P E N S I V E O R C U S T O M E R S A R E N ’ T L O O K I N G F O R Y O U ?
G R O W T H H A C K I N G M I N I - C O N F E R E N C E - 2 2 N O V 2 0 1 3
Alexander Jarvis 50 Folds
A L E X A N D E R J A R V I S
• Build and advise startups- 2 launching
• Lazada
• Delivery Hero
• Groupon
• Bootstrapped other companies
• Mergers and acquisitions at Lazard
@ADJBlog !Starting to blog: www.alexanderjarvis.com
A G E N D A1. Some advice
2. Latent markets
3. Viral videos
4. Leverage users
5. Leverage suppliers
6. Leverage networks
7. Pre-launch strategies
8. Social media and stuff
• Acquire
• Activate
• Retain
• Refer
• Revenue
MAINLY
A BIT
Read: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/09/startup-metrics.html
W E A R E G O I N G T O G O FA S T !
• Only 30 minutes, can only cover a little
• Goal: Inspiration and comprehend what is possible
• Write down questions
• Google what you don’t get
• Wrote with intention you read after
• Posted on my blog
• Listen! Teach you some secrets you CAN’T google!
S O M E A D V I C E
K E Y T O K N O W• Focus on stuff that scales
• Don’t be deluded
• Effort doesn’t always mean results
• E.g Flyering- feel like you busy but crap conversion (Hot girls help!)
• Test/measure everything
• know what works, focus on that
• Go where users are - find them, use them
• You won’t get sued if you are small
• Don’t get stressed out by legal letters
N O A M O U N T O F M A R K E T I N G C A N S AV E Y O U I F …
• You aren’t solving a real problem
• Aspirin vs. vitamin
• People must be hurting
• Your product sucks
• Users must pay for it!
B E S T M A R K E T I N G C H A N N E L I S N O T N E E D I N G A N Y
• Zendesk got first 10k users from word of mouth
• VC funding and users found them
• Because portfolio companies used them!
• Marketing spend ACCELERATED them, not made them
Read: http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/16/from-its-beginnings-in-a-denmark-loft-zendesks-steady-rise-to-the-top-of-the-helpdesk-heap/
B U T E V E N W I T H A D E C E N T P R O D U C T , Y O U C A N ' T N E G L E C T M A R K E T I N G
• Everpix failed in part as focused too much on perfect product, not marketing
• “While the team obsessed about perfecting the service, the founders paid less attention to the subject investors care about most: growth.”
Read: http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/5/5039216/everpix-life-and-death-inside-the-worlds-best-photo-startup
S O … N O PA I D C H A N N E L S
• Often competition makes CAC unworkable
• LTV needs to be >3x CAC
• CPC/CPM cheaper in Asia, there are still opportunities here…
• But, assume:
1. You don’t have much cash (Need some!)
2. People aren’t looking for you
L AT E N T M A R K E T S ( A K A Y O U D O W H AT ? )
B I R C H B O X /G L O S S Y B O X
• ‘5 deluxe size beauty product in a box, delivered every month on a subscription basis’
• Marketing people pay for!
• Girls weren’t looking for this, they never heard of it before
• How do you buy keywords for that?!
EXA
MPLE
A I R B N B / W I M D U
• Rent your house to randoms?
• Drove supply by completely abusing Craigslist, gumtree etc
• Drove demand by
• completely abusing Craigslist, gumtree etc
• Creating community
• and… poaching clients
EXA
MPLE
F I N D U S E R S W H E R E T H E Y L I V E
• You don’t go hunting for polar bears in Africa
• Understand your customers
• Where do they spend time?
• What do they like to do?
• Best to be a customer yourself
• Paul Graham invests in first time founders as they fixate on a problem they have
Read: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
B L O G G E R S
• Bloggers blog - they ‘want it’ ;)
• NB: Make sure they write about what you sell or waste your time
• Compile a TARGETED list of bloggers
• Read articles and reference them
• Be polite with targeted message
• Give a free trial or hold events
• Don’t pressure or bribe (unless they ask…) but persist
• Same for journalists (PR)!
Y O U T U B E
• Termed ‘unboxing’
• Some Youtube channels have a big reach
• Same process for reaching out to bloggers
V I R A L V I D E O S ( H A R D )
P E R S O N A L LY I G N O R E - T O O H A R D
• Make an engaging video that people share because…x y z
• Like finding unicorns
• I am not creative enough, maybe you are
• Some videos on Youtube get paid promotes to help go viral
• Making them can be good team building
D O L L A R S H AV E C L U B
• Spent $4,500, founder made
• 12,000 sign-ups 48 hours after posting
• 12m+ views on main channel
• Worked as was good, duh!
EXA
MPLE
Read: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224282
L E V E R A G E U S E R S ( B E T T E R )
C H E A P E S T WAY T O M A K E M O R E M O N E Y
• Make more from existing users
• Love them so they increase your:
• LTV
• ARPU
• You want evangelists
• Cheapest user is the one you don't buy (Referral)
S E N D H A N D -W R I T T E N N O T E S
• My team and I wrote hand written notes to our first 1,000 users
• Designed own paper which turned into a paper aeroplane (Instructions to fold on the back)
E M A I L U S E R S F R O M T H E C E O
• I used to email each and every single customer to thank them
• Eventually we created a ‘CEO’ email account and I delegated the task
• We asked for how we could love them more
• Also got leads for new suppliers they wanted to shop from
G I V E U S E R S S WA G
• Give users free stuff which promotes your brand • Can incentivise if they get x ‘karma’
• Users need to want the stuff though, or you waste cash
• T-shirts make customers walking billboards • Choose good cotton or they won’t
wear • We made shopping bags
• Some countries you have to pay for them
H O T M A I L• Email footer:
• “I love you, get your free Hotmail email”
• 6 months 1m users • 5 weeks later, 2m users • 18 months sold to Microsoft
with 12m users • 70m internet users back then
• Sent email to India • 3 weeks = 300k users
EXA
MPLE
Read: http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/18/ps-i-love-you-get-your-free-email-at-hotmail/
D R O P B O X
• Incentivise users with additional free space
• Both you and your friend get 300mb
• Referrals increased Dropbox signups by 60%
• Worth $4bn, that’s a B
EXA
MPLE
Read all: http://www.quora.com/search?q=dropbox+viral
L E V E R A G E S U P P L I E R S ( A N D E V E R Y O N E E L S E )
S U P P L I E R M A R K E T I N G
• If you work with suppliers, they can help
• Figure out any cost centres or pain points
• You MUST understand how they operate and if customers will see/benefit
• Storage space in offices
• Delivery schedules
• Their own cost points (if sell)
G I V E T H E M S T U F F
• Brand physical things they need (cost them) and sell/give to suppliers: • Pizzaboxes • Bags • Chopsticks • Napkins • Bar mats
• They do marketing for you • We gave them ‘welcome packs’ • They even will deliver to your
competitors ;)
S T I C K E R S A N D P O S T E R S• Put up posters and stickers
in windows of shops
• Don’t just send stuff!
• If you are nice and just do it they won’t stop you!
• Person doing it has to be right- some people can’t!
• Apparently miinto.com gets major traffic from stickers in fashion boutiques
G I V E AWA R D S
• People love awards
• Make up some kind of award which is HEAVILY branded
• Send it to supplier
• They will love you
• They put that up where customers can see!
C R E AT E W E B S I T E S
• Seriously, so many people don’t have sites
• Huge opportunity in Malaysia
• Make them, brand and backlink, give them
• Negotiate more margin
• Tie in suppliers
S TA F F H A C K S
• Everyone wears company t-shirt
• Staff are billboards
• Give staff general business cards to hand out to everyone
• Make sure they carry at all times
• Email signatures promoting your business (add referral links)
• Get them to spam all their Facebook friends and regularly post
S T R E E T C H A L K• Buy plastic, custom
stencil
• Can spray paint
• Lasts longer but could get fined…
• Spray chalk
• Lasts week + depending on weather
• Bus stops good place
• Do at night, otherwise:
• Staff get nervous
• People stare
L E V E R A G E N E T W O R K S
F I N D T H E N E X T N E W N E T W O R K• Abuse networks • New networks haven't been
gamed yet and there are people there! • Snapchat?
A I R B N B
• Auto-post to Craiglist
• To book you had to go to Airbnb
• Hack got found, no longer possible
EXA
MPLE
Read: http://andrewchen.co/2012/04/27/how-to-be-a-growth-hacker-an-airbnbcraigslist-case-study/
O T H E R SEX
AM
PLE
+
+
+
S E O H A C K S
• Scraped the data off companies’ help pages to generate content and focused on keywords to rank higher than official forums
• Embed an image on your home page to improve your free use plan
• Embed their brand on your homepage as part of use
• Every embed has a backlink
• Created massively engagement blog content
EXA
MPLE
P R E - L A U N C H S T R AT E G I E S
D O N ’ T WA I T T I L L Y O U A R E L I V E
• Get traction pre-launch • Also useful to validate idea
• To do: • Get landing page
• www.launchrock.com • www.kickofflabs.com • Drive users to it with
gamification • Activate them when live
• www.Mailchimp.com
M A I L B O X
• Pre-launch was 6 months long
• 380k users pre-launch
• Queue motivated sign-up
• Got famous people to help though…
EXA
MPLE
Read: http://www.quora.com/Mailbox-app-1/How-did-Mailbox-app-gain-so-much-pre-launch-exposure-buzz
FA B
• 200k users pre-launch
• Great “game mechanics”
• Understood psychology
• Status vs free stuff
EXA
MPLE
Read: http://www.quora.com/Fab-com/As-of-Dec-2012-what-did-Fab-com-do-to-become-one-of-the-fastest-growing-e-commerce-websites
S O C I A L M E D I A A N D S T U F F
FA C E B O O K PA G E S
• To do
• List Facebook pages with lots of likes and reach out to owner
• Offer some value
• Think about them not you
• Competitions and promos
• Can also hijack…
• Secret
• You can buy pages and migrate users
• You can buy likes to seed your page
• Helps convert real, new users
• allthehits.com (Shut down..)
C L A I M G O O G L E M A P S
• You can claim Places on Google Maps
• Have to figure out the authorisation process ;)
• Hint: Coordinate with the actual owner, just don’t say too much to confuse them Couldn't find a real example…
C R E AT E C O N T E N T• ‘Spam’ sites
• “We are three girls looking to meet guys but no dudes signed up!”
• Make presentations on slideshare
• Leave responses on popular, targeted youtube videos
• Manually reach out to Facebook fans and twitter followers from competitors
• Sharable tools of ‘self-expression’
• Create infographics/memes
• Answer questions on Quora
• BUT! Make sure you promote and share the stuff
• Tree falls in the woods…
C L O S I N G P O I N T S
• What worked for others probably won’t work for you
• First to do Parallax scrolling… now in Bootstrap
• Understand what worked and WHY (Read Quora)
• Then DO something!
• Key is to come up with ideas, test, then double-down or kill iteratively
• Be creative
• Be pragmatic
• Occam’s razor
O K ! Q U E S T I O N S