Andrew McGee; Commercialisation Adviser Innovation Centres Scotland Limited

Tuesday November 25th 2014 at the Hillington Park Innovation Centre in Glasgow

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

Understanding your Customer; Identify the Best Routes to Market for

your Tech Start-Up

Agenda

0930 to 0935 Introductions

0935 to 0950 Routes to Market Overview

0950 to 1010 Highs & Lows of Marketing a Tech Start-up

Lorna Elmslie; Dimensional Imaging Limited

1010 to 1030 Understanding Your Customer with Buyer Personas

Mark Connolly; Marketing Mavens Limited

1030 to 1035 Questions

1035 to 1050 Coffee Break

1050 to 1145 Interactive Case Study Workshops x 6

1145 to 1230 Workshop Results x 6

1230 to 1330 Networking Lunch

2 Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

3

Before getting out of the starting blocks; you need to ask

some serious questions…

• Who are your customers?

• What problem does your product / service solve?

• Is this problem being solved by someone else?

• Is yours better than the competitor?

• Where do customers buy this existing product from?

Routes to Market

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

Product

• What exactly will my customers buy?

Price

• What’s my product / service worth?

Promotion

• How do I communicate with my customers?

Position

• What sales channels will I use?

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Routes to Market Plan

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

Action Plan & Implementation

• Prioritise / Actions / Red Flags

• Think BIG...Start Small

• Minimum Value Product (MVP)

• Long process...MUST START TODAY

Budget & Resources to Make it Happen

• People – internal and/or contractors

• Identify the Milestones

• Understand the Costs

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Routes to Market Plan

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

1. Direct • Good for complex products and

• Making personal contact with an important customer

• More expensive; time consuming & riskier

• UK / International approach

2. Manufacturing / Solution Partner • Complimentary product

• Localise the solution; relationship with end user

• White labelling / licensing

• IP protection required

• Routes to market

Routes to Market Examples

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

3. Reseller / Distributor Partner • UK & International markets • Already have relationships with clients • Engaged in complimentary solutions; preferably not

competitive • Independent consultants / distributors • Can be a long process; qualification is key

4. Strategic Partner • Multi-national consultancy practices / system integrators • Searching for innovative solutions • Demonstrate to clients they have finger on the pulse

Routes to Market Examples

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

5. Online • Saves on costs and keeps business open 24/7

• Reach a wider international audience

• Difficulties establishing trust and drawing in traffic

• Need a reliable website with payment system

• SEO engagement & content marketing

Combination of Channels • Can give a greater chance of reaching audience

• Helps develop sales strategy

• Challenge managing multiple channels

Routes to Market Examples

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

“Hidden” Sales Cycle

• 61% of buyers self-qualify online (andomise.com)

• Smartphones, tablets, social media and the Internet

• 90% of marketing collateral is wasted & does not engage the buyer

• Buyers have more information than ever

• From social networks, to suppliers’ websites & independent content

• Prospects entering the formal sales cycle are more informed

• Assuring the right message can reach the right person on their preferred device at ANYTIME - ANYWHERE !

• “HIDDEN” sales cycle has emerged

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

Seismic Tectonic Shift to…

Inbound Marketing &

also Marketing Automation

“Hidden” Sales Cycle

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

In Summary

• Market & competitor research

• Understand your ideal customer

• Constant probing to understand your clients ‘pains’

• Reach out to your target audience

• Position your product for buyers to self-qualify

• Measure results & ROI

Qualification-Qualification-Qualification

Goal is to drive sales; achieve a sustainable competitive advantage

& TO MAKE A PROFIT!

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

+44 (0)7905 326 144

+44 (0)1506 592 100

andrew.mcgee@innovationcentre.org

innovationcentre.org

albainnovationcentre.co.uk

@mcgeeandrew

mcgeeandrew

@albainnovation

Take the opportunity to stay connected...

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014

Brought to you by & in partnership with …

Delivered by…

Marketing a High Tech Start Up

Lorna Elmslie

Marketing Manager

Dimensional Imaging Ltd

“Building a great company means spending the vast majority of your time and resources on two things:

1.Creating products and services people will love, and 2.Finding people to love those products and services.”

HubSpot Founder & CEO

Excuses Excuses…

I’ve no budget I don’t have enough time

It’s not a priority for me

I know I probably should do Marketing, but I don’t know where to start…

The ‘Marketing Minefield’

• What Marketing should I do?

• What do you focus on and why?

• When should you start marketing?

• What marketing are your competitors doing?

What’s worked for me at DI?

• Increasing our Social Media activity

• Maximising our online presence

– New website – Sept 2014

– Across social media channels

• Creating content (& sharing it!)

• Engaging with key influencers/companies/trade journals in our sector

– Online and face to face

What’s not worked for me…yet

• Converting those leads generated from marketing activities

• Engaging better with customers and prospects

• Increasing our brand awareness in US

Next Steps

• Identify the right channels for your product/service

• Define keywords & USP’s

• Define success

• Create SMART objectives

• Set a budget, goals & timeline

PR

What Should You Do?

Content Creation

Social Media

Engagement Marketing

Digital Marketing

Relevant content earns permission to sell. Content is the fuel that drives the

inbound effect from partner sites and outposts, content is the conversation starter and problem solver in social

media…

Lessons Learned

• Marketing takes time, so start early

• Early adopters are crucial

• Marketing is about telling a story

• Stick with it!

Useful Free Resources

• Keywords – Google’s Keyword tool

• Social Media – Hootsuite, Linked In

• Website – Google Analytics, Website Grader, AddThis

• Blogging – Wordpress/Yoast

• Email Campaigns - Mailchimp

Understanding Your Customer With

Buyer Personas

Mark Connolly

Overview

• Introduction to Mark Connolly and MarketingMavens

• Understanding Your Customer

• What Are Buyer Personas?

• What Are Negative Personas?

• How Can You Use Personas?

• How Do You Create Personas?

Mark Connolly

• Chartered and Inbound Marketer

• Business Owner of Digital Marketing

Agency – MarketingMavens

• Tutor for Chartered Institute of Marketing

(CIM)

• Marketing Communications

• Digital Marketing

• Author of a book on Digital Marketing

Strategy

• Website – www.marketingmavens.co.uk

• Contact – mark@marketingmavens.co.uk

Who am I?

• MarketingMavens is for marketing managers and business owners who are tired of spending a lot of money on campaigns that can’t be measured and don’t deliver results.

• We take a holistic approach and put together integrated inbound strategies and campaigns that will drive visitors to your website and convert those visitors into leads.

Some of my ‘Tech’ Clients:

Importance of Understanding Your Customers

• It is key to making money and providing a great customer service

• You need to be attentive to their needs

• Put yourself in your customers' shoes

• Using data to understand your customers

– CRM/Customer Database

• Ask your customers what they think - Survey

Target Audience

What Are Buyer Personas?

• Personas are a common marketing and design tactic that helps you to focus on your

marketing

• They are character sketches of individual audience members that define who the

website, product or service is for.

• Personas help marketers visualise their audience and better understand their needs

• Personas are defined as archetypal users that represent the needs, goals, values, and

behaviours of larger groups.

• Personas bring users to life by giving them names, personalities, and faces.

What Are Negative Personas?

Whereas a buyer persona is a representation of an ideal customer, a negative -- or

“exclusionary” -- persona is a representation of who you don’t want as a customer.

• IKEA • Blackcircles • Dulux

Examples of Buyer Personas

How developing a persona is helpful?

Understanding the needs of your audience is critical to the success of

marketing!

• Personas will help you to identify and communicate their needs efficiently and effectively.

• It helps with messaging and campaign development

• Personas help to move you away from what the marketing team wants and towards what

the persona wants.

How Can You Use Personas?

• Personas allow you to personalise the message

• Target your marketing for different segments of your audience.

– For example, instead of sending the same lead nurturing emails to everyone in

your database, you can segment by buyer persona and tailor your messaging

according to what you know about those different personas.

How Can You Use Personas?

• They can help you improve your marketing overall

• You will understand what type of mediums/channels they use

• When combined with lifecycle stage (i.e. how far along someone is in your sales cycle), buyer

personas also allow you to map out and create highly targeted content.

How Do You Create Buyer Personas?

Buyer personas are created through research, surveys, and interviews of your target

audience. That includes a mix of customers, prospects and those outside of your contact

database who might align with your target audience.

Here are some practical methods for gathering the information you need to develop

personas:

• Interview customers either in person or over the phone to discover what they like about

your product or service.

Persona Questions to Ask Yourself

• What is their demographic information?

• What is their age?

• Where do they live?

• What industry do they work?

• What is their job level/senority?

• What does a day in their life look like?

• What are their pains/issues?

• What do they value?

• What are their goals?

• Where do they seek their information/data?

• What are their most common objections to your

product/service?

Sample Sally

• Head of Human Resources

• Worked at the same company for 10 years; worked her way up from

HR Associate

• Married with 2 children (10 and 8)

• Majority female

• Age 30-45

• Dual HH Income: £100,000

• Suburban

• Calm demeanor

• Probably has an assistant screening calls

• Asks to receive collateral mailed/printed

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Sample Sally

• Keep employees happy and turnover low

• Support legal and finance teams

• Getting everything done with a small staff

• Rolling out changes to the entire company

• Make it easy to manage all employee data in one place

• Integrate with legal and finance teams’ systems

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Sample Sally

• “It’s been difficult getting company-wide adoption of new

technologies in the past.”

• “I don’t have time to train new employees on a million different

databases and platforms.”

• “I’ve had to deal with so many painful integrations with other

departments’ databases and software.”

• I’m worried I’ll lose data transitioning to a new system.

• I don’t want to have to train the entire company on how to use a new

system.

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Sample Sally

• Integrated HR Database Management

• We give you an intuitive database that integrates with your existing

software and platforms, and lifetime training to help new employees

get up to speed quickly.

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Continual Persona Research

• Look through your contacts database to uncover trends about how certain leads or

customers find and consume your content.

• When creating forms to use on your website, use form fields that capture important

persona information.

– Company size

– Social media accounts

– Where did you hear from us?

• Take into consideration your sales team's feedback on the leads they are interacting with

most.

Thank You

Any questions?

Case Study Workshops

Six Case Study Volunteers

• Peer-to-peer interactive workshops

• 6 case study presentations

• Input from all delegates, presenters and advisers

PlanningTo MintPod

Sigma Sciences Metix Medical

Suntino Renewable Energy Create Ts and Cs

Understanding your Customer - Identify the Best Routes to Market for your Tech Start-Up © 2014