1. HOW MARKETING SHOULD BE
DONE IN A STARTUP
Ashish Rai
Startup Marketer
@areahouse40
2. A bit about me
● Started my career as a tele-sales rep in 2005
● Worked for BPO/Offshore Web Development companies in variety of
roles including Head of Total Quality, Head of Search Engine
Marketing + led over 30 inside sales reps.
● Co-founded an SEO company, Koncept Web Services (2011-12)
● Primarily B2B, some B2C
● Today: Inside Sales & Marketing Manager at CloudFactory, providing
advanced Data Services to F5000
● Interest: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, SaaS, Ecommerce
3. Have you ever sat down and considered
why most startups fail?
7. ...in reality the world looks a lot different
Where is
everybody!?
Get overwhelmed. Go back to
building the product
8. Where did the learning happen?
What was the point of looking at the
analytics?
Why did we even set-up the analytics
in the first place?
Three questions to consider
9. t
The recipe for failure in building a web product
is to build the product.
11. The Lean Startup Process
Step 1: Build an experimental product
A better way to do a startup
12. The Lean Startup Process
Step 1: Build an experimental product
Step 2: Measure how users respond
to your experiment
A better way to do a startup
13. The Lean Startup Process
Step 1: Build an experimental product
Step 2: Measure how users respond
to your experiment
Step 3: Learn whether your
experiment worked or not
A better way to do a startup
16. Step 1: Decide What you want to learn?
The Lean Startup Process
A better pictorial representation
17. Step 1: Decide What you want to learn?
Step 2: Then draw a line in the sand
(what’s your goal post?)
The Lean Startup Process
A better pictorial representation
18. Step 1: Decide What you want to learn?
Step 2: Then draw a line in the sand
(what’s your goal post?)
Step 3: Figure out how you’re
going to measure it
The Lean Startup Process
A better pictorial representation
20. One day, one of the co-founders
hypothesized that professional
photography would help Airbnb hosts
attract more renters.
Case Study: Airbnb
21. One day, one of the co-founders
hypothesized that professional
photography would help Airbnb hosts
attract more renters.
So they ran an experiment
Case Study: Airbnb
22. Airbnb hired 20 professional
photographers on a trial basis.
The photographers met with a
small subset of hosts and took
photos of their homes and spare
bedrooms.
Case Study: Airbnb
23. Then they measured how the new photos performed. And true to their guess, listings
with professional photos got 2-3x more bookings!
Case Study: Airbnb
24. Airbnb’s hypothesis was validated, so they expanded the program. Now they do 5,000
photo shoots a month because they know they increase their bottom line.
Case Study: Airbnb
25. But not all experiments are successful
So, when should you pivot or quit?
26. Lean analytics framework helps you make honest, pragmatic
decisions about your progress and what to do next.
27. Pivot when you know what you’re pivoting to,
quit if you don’t.
34. At a certain scale, awareness/brand building makes sense.
But for the first year or two it’s a total waste of money.
- Sean Ellis
http://www.startup-marketing.com/awareness-building-is-a-waste-of-startup-resources/
35. Direct response marketing drives revenue quickly, is measurable,
and can improve efficiencies and close rates.
36. ...it’s designed to elicit an immediate response from
consumers who might be interested in your product.
www.shoedazzle.com
39. Use Reason - ‘Why’ Copy
The saddest thing about poverty is wasted talent.
Unlocking this human potential is the driving force behind CloudFactory where we
aim to connect 1 million people to basic computer work over the next 5 years.
http://cloudfactory.com/pages/social-mission.html
40. Use Reason - ‘Why’ Copy
The saddest thing about poverty is wasted talent.
Unlocking this human potential is the driving force behind CloudFactory where we
aim to connect 1 million people to basic computer work over the next 5 years.
http://cloudfactory.com/pages/social-mission.html
Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the
most powerful influences of human behavior.
41. Create a sense of irresistible value in your direct
marketing response
http://www.dailylook.com/g/Invite-Friends/2212.html
43. Honza got hundreds of responses, from some of the most well
known startups.
https://twitter.com/honzavalustik
Humanize - Being human works!
44. Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
45. Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
46. Selling fashion? Sell looks not items.
Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
47. Selling clothes? Show people looking well dressed and classy
Selling fashion? Sell looks not items.
Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
48. Selling clothes? Show people looking well dressed and classy
Selling fashion? Sell looks not items.
Btw, have you ever seen a dentist advertise bad teeth they can fix?
Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
49. Selling clothes? Show people looking well dressed and classy
Selling fashion? Sell looks not items.
Btw, have you ever seen a dentist advertise bad teeth they can fix?
(it’s a rhetorical qusestion)
Always elicit the desired condition NOT the
problem your products solve
50. Design - Make use of whitespace
http://blog.landerapp.com/how-to-design-a-landing-page-when-youve-never-designed-in-your-life/
51. Design - Make use of whitespace
First impression matters!
http://blog.landerapp.com/how-to-design-a-landing-page-when-youve-never-designed-in-your-life/
52. First impression matters!
Remember, marketing is art + craft.
http://blog.landerapp.com/how-to-design-a-landing-page-when-youve-never-designed-in-your-life/
Design - Make use of whitespace
53. Design - Make use of whitespace
You don’t need to be world class designers,
you just need to space things well then you
can fool a lot of your visitors. :)
First impression matters!
Remember, marketing is art + craft.
http://blog.landerapp.com/how-to-design-a-landing-page-when-youve-never-designed-in-your-life/
55. What is the value being communicated?
Communicate your value proposition
56. What Value Proposition is NOT
It’s not a slogan or catch phrase.
It’s not a positioning statement
It’s not your product’s benefit or feature statement
Neither, it is your business model
57. value proposition is a clear statement that...
explains how your product solves customers’ problems or
improves their situation (relevancy)
delivers specific benefits (quantified value)
tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not
from the competition (unique differentiation).
What exactly is a value proposition?
