Growing a Startup With Inbound Marketing - Bernco Media

Growing A Startup With
Inbound Marketing

Darin “Doc” Berntson
Founder, Chief Remarkable Ofﬁcer 
Bernco Media
16+ Years Internet Marketing
Twitter @iGoByDoc / @BerncoMedia
doc@berncomedia.com
www.berncomedia.com - 801.438.4055

HubSpot For Startups
Two year program to grow your business with
HubSpot's best in class marketing and sales software  
at a fraction of the cost.
More on that later..

At that moment
Everything Makes Sense?

What have I noticed 
over the years?

Some entrepreneurs and business
owners think marketing is
A NECESSARY EVIL.

Others have thought marketing is an
AN UNNECESSARY EVIL.

I’m going to show you why
Inbound Marketing
is an absolute MUST
for your startup!

It’s something every early stage
company should leverage to help
them gain exposure online and
leverage against all their
competitors

In 2000-2005
How Did You Research / Buy A Product?
Catalog, Mail, Phonebook, Pick Up The Phone

In 2016
How Do You Research & Buy Products & Services?
Buy online
Price match (showrooming)
Trusted advisor, friend on social, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter… word of mouth

Why?
You Want To Keep The Power of
Negotiation.
Not Be Bothered By Pushy
Salespeople

Cold Calling?
Is It Good For A Brand?

Does This Happen
To You?
Are You Being Interrupted?
Are You Getting SPAM eMails?
Does This Make You Want To Buy?

Is There A Better Way?
• Businesses can eventually
STOP Cold Calling
• Buyers Are Sick Of Marketing
Interruptions

So, let’s start with WHY
entrepreneurs often avoid marketing.
(not you, of course, those “other” entrepreneurs)

WHO NEEDS MARKETING?
I’m building a product people
will LOVE
(I’m all set)

Building a product people love?
AWESOME!
Marketing can help you ﬁnd people to love it.
You can’t just rely on others to share your product.

“I’m going to
outsource this and hire
a PR agency and get
on TechCrunch.”
I’m going to generate
thousands of leads…
I’m all set.

Unfortunately,
that’s not the case.

PR agencies are a
typically a bad idea
for most startups.
You could be the
exception…
… but you’re
probably not..
YOU are your best
PR Agency
You know your
product better.
You are your best
spokesperson

Stealth mode is for fighter
jets, not startups

Stop worrying that
somebody will
steal your idea.
(Start worrying that
nobody will care about it)

“I’m just not ready. It’s too early.
I believe in marketing.
Just not right now.”

Your should start marketing
the day you start
building your product.
(waiting until you are “ready” is too late)

“Marketing seems really unpleasant though.
I’m not a writer.”

YOU’RE NOT ALONE
The marketing industry has a problem.
Car Sales Lobbyist Marketer Stock Broker Lawyer
Less Trusted More Trusted

You don’t want to
be this guy.

But, that’s old-school marketing.
When done right, marketing isn’t
unpleasant.
(more on this in a bit)

“I’ve raised
funding. I’ll just
buy attention.”

You are not really
buying attention,
you’re renting it.

Ads are TEMPORARY.
When you stop paying
the “rent”, you stop
getting attention.

Your well heeled
competitor has a
massive
marketing budget.
And you…
not so much

Startups should’t get into an arms race for attention.

You can’t out-spend the behemoths.

NOBODY wakes up and thinks: “I hope I get spammed today:”

95% of people
don’t like being interrupted

“OK ﬁne.
I don’t want to annoy people.
What’s a better way?

Traditional Marketing Is Broken
Buyers are taking control. They’re turned off by
old-school marketing that’s impersonal and interrupts

Don’t Interrupt Buyers, Attract Them.

Zero Moment Of Truth
• 1st time someone contacts via a
form, phone call, walked in to retail
• It’s the moment when they say they
trust you enough to actually contact
you, and you know it
• The moment you know they might
give their money to you

• ZMOT was a Forrester Research
Group study
• Started off as a B2B (business to
business) study
• Then Google did the exact same
study, but focused on B2C as well

70%
Do you know the correlation?

• 70% of the buying decision is made
before ZMOT
• Before they call you, ﬁll out a form,
walk in to your store, before they talk
to a sales person
• They have done their research
• Buyers are way more educated today
• You want to be a part of that 70%?

• Let’s go back 10 years, what do you
think the ZMOT percentage was? 
Maybe between 20-30%?
• Let’s go back 5 years? 
Maybe 40-50%
• Today it’s 70%
• What’s the number going to be over
the next 10 years? Only going up!

No More Buyer Beware…
It’s The Time Of
Seller Beware!

If This 70% Number Is True
Which Department Has The Greater Impact On The
Sale? Is It Sales, Or Is It Marketing?

Again: Which Department Has More Impact on the
Sales Process - Sales or Marketing?
• Who is typically ﬁrst to get laid off? Marketing
• Who typically gets hired ﬁrst? Sales
• This is backwards!
• Within 10 years, marketers will make more money than sales people

What Is
Inbound Marketing?
Instead of buying ads, buying
email lists, or cold calling, Inbound
marketing focuses on creating
educational content that pulls
people towards your website where
they can learn more about what
you sell, on their own accord.

Inbound Is an Approach To Marketing That
Teaches Today’s Consumer
Get found by
qualiﬁed leads online
with content (website
pages, blog articles,
social messaging)
optimized for search
and social media
Understand what
content pulls your
buyers through the
sales funnel, and use
that context to
personalize your
marketing at scale

Inbound takes the marketing
people know (and hate)
And turns it on it’s head.

In Summary,
Inbound Marketing
is about…
• Building trust, not skepticism
among your prospects
• Being loved, not ignored by
your customers
• Outsmarting, not out spending
your competitors

It focuses on attracting people
instead of annoying them.

It’s simple.
(but not easy)
It’s about providing value instead of
pushing your way in

In a nutshell…
Market with a Magnet,
not a sledgehammer
Less:
• Cold calling & Spamming
• What You Want
More:
• Attraction & Permission
• What the Customer Wants

The most common
and easy way is to
create content that’s helpful.

Some types of content you can
create…
Blog Posts - Photos & Infographic -
Videos & Podcasts - Presentations &
eBooks - Software or Tools

Build your marketing machine
just like you build your product.

Release early, release often.
Publish early, publish often.

Ideally, you’d have written your
ﬁrst line of content the day you
wrote your ﬁrst line of code.

And, validated learning applies
here too.
Publish - Learn - Measure -
Repeat

Now, back to the types of
content.
ONE word of advice.

KEEP CALM
AND
CREATE KICK-ASS CONTENT

Blogging can be called many
things.
News section, updates, tips,
learning center

So thats a bit about strategy and
philosophy.
Now, let’s dig in to some details.

Typical applications needed for marketing

Did you know there are almost
6 BILLION
searches on Google every day?

Maybe a few of those people
would be interested in
your product?

We’re going to take a moment to
emphasize the importance of
blogging because it’s that
important

Startups in particular should blog
because it’s one of the most
effective ways to build brand
awareness and attract potential
customers to your site.

Blogging
• Minimum of 1 blog post per week
• Pick a blog series to help organize ideas
• Feature guest bloggers and team members
• Ensure each post is properly optimized (keywords etc)
• Include calls-to-action and links throughout

Is PPC a good idea?
Yes and No.

But 90%
of the links searches click on are
organic… not paid.

90%
of the searches never click on ads.
They click on the organic listings.

Why pay to reach the 10%,
when the other 90% are free low
marginal cost?

You want to build
marketing assists
that you own.
SOLD

So, invest in
organic search
content.
As ye SEO,
so shall ye reap.

HOLD UP
Build content for your buyer personas
and where they are in the buyers journey

BEST ADVICE
Solve for the searcher not the search engine.
Happy Humans = Happy Google
Happy Google = Better Rankings

Blogging isn’t the only tool that
can help you attract visitors,
though.

Social Media Marketing & Monitoring
• Developed social media channels:
• LinkedIn company page, Facebook page, Twitter, Google+ (?) and LinkedIn
Groups
• Determine appropriate strategy & frequency
• B2B audience beneﬁts from LinkedIn sharing
• Post 80% external, helpful, curated content and 20% brand
• Monitor relevant conversations. LISTEN. ENGAGE.

Few tools are more affordable
and effective as blogging and
social media for growing your
business.

SEO & Responsive Design
• Must have responsive website, blog and email - People are MOBILE! Think Mobile First!
• Search engine optimization strategy:
• On and Off page SEO
• Keyword research
• Blogging
• Landing pages
• Stay up to date with SEO changes

HOLD UP
Don’t waste too much money here
We’ll talk Growth-Driven Design later.
Make sure your website is responsive, like now!

Email Marketing & Automation
• Promote targeted / segmented offers and increase awareness
• Include appropriate offers on each email marketing campaign to increase lead
reengagement efforts
• Send at least 2 emails per month to selected buyer personas/segments
• Increase marketing automation efforts based on lead insights, web trafﬁc, social
trafﬁc
• Make sure each email has one single focus, or action you want your contact to
take

Lead Capture Forms & Landing Pages
• Ensure content is behind a landing page with a form
• Develop at least 1-3 offers per month
• All offers include:
• Call-to-action, Landing page, TY/Offer Page and Follow up email
• Utilize progressive proﬁling (smart content)

How do I close leads into
customers?
5

How do I delight my customers?
6

Alas, we’re done with the tools.
Here’s how the inbound
methodology and tools
all come together

Who do I hire for marketing?
7

You don’t need to hire a CMO
Start with someone that’s going
to jump in and start helping your
future users/customers

Try to ﬁnd someone that is:
• A Digital Citizen
• Analytically Driven
• A Content Creator
• A Reach Builder

Look at some of the best
brands, or your competition,
and see how they are delivering
content.

Find a local college/university.
Go to the professors and ﬁnd the most
talkative and digitally savvy person in their
class. Who cares about doing the work!
They may be free with school credit.

This person, after 6 months or
som could make for a great full-
time employee!
They will be ahead of the curve!

HOLD UP
Be sure to start with a strategy.
Use SMART goals.
Speciﬁc. Measurable. Achievable. Results Focused. Time-bound
Look for a mentor or coach.

Yeah Right, Doc! Who Can Do All This?
What Is The ROI?

What’s the ROI to Inbound?
8

Implement all that we have
talked about today, and that will
set you up for success!

If you can demonstrate revenue,
sales, content that is working,
that is something that is very
attractive to investors

You can also identify areas in
your marketing that you may
need to tweak!
Fail early and often!

I Know a Pool Guy
• 2007/2008, wondering how he
would pay bills, and salaries
• Wondered if he and his partners
would lose their homes
• Sales were down
• They embraced Inbound Marketing,
and embraced “They ask, you
answer” and blogged daily!

Fast Forward
• #1 pool site, probably in the world
• Expanding into manufacturing
• Outranks all competitors
• Outsells competitors, and is usually $5-10K
higher than competitors
• Prospects became more educated
• Sales cycle dropped dramatically
• Now a national company after merger

Over $3 Million
In Sales
Attributed to that ONE blog post
ROI Anyone?
And there are many more success stories

Anything you think has to be sold face to face
will be able to be sold online in the future
• Two of my clients - Never met in person, they found me via Inbound
• Pool example:
• Last year 95 pools sold
• 80 sold online
• $50K+ each w/o ever going to home to measure… Why?
• Trust agents in their industry

For Inbound / Content Marketing To Work…
• MUST have management and employee buy-in
• All employees, staff are in marketing now
• We call this insourcing
• No one knows your business better than you!
• Take your marketing back!

Don’t Over Think Content
• Yes, eventually do persona development, but don’t let that stop you
from getting started, NOW!
• Persona = “prospect with pain” - What is their challenge/symptom?
• They ask, you answer…. good, bad or ugly you write about it
• Listen to what customers ask. If one asks, hundreds or thousands
more are asking as well. That’s a blog post!

• Cost
• Problems
• Versus
• Reviews
• Best
“The Big Five” Content Types

How Many Salespeople Does A
Business Have?
How Many Emails Do They Send Every Day?

Every Company
• Should have a DEDICATED content / inbound manager
• Can’t afford it? Outsource to a knowledgeable partner! (I know a
guy)
• Hire a journalist coming out of school. $30-40K year.  
They can 5 - 10x their salary in revenue

Focussed Mainly
On Content Today
So much more to Inbound…

Just Leave With This:
Become The BEST Teacher
In The World!

Two year program to grow your business with
HubSpot's best in class marketing and sales software  
at a fraction of the cost.
The details.
Hundreds of startups are taking advantage of this
program.

HubSpot platform for 90% off ﬁrst year
Second year at 50% off
One-time fee of $540 (normally $3000+)
•1 on1 Assistance with Technical Setup of your account
•Up to one training session per quarter for assistance with implementation of HubSpot
tools and/or methodology
•Unmetered technical support from the HubSpot Support team
•Exclusive access to HubSpot's startup network via Inbound.org group
•Access to HubSpot's Onboarding Plan for Startups
•Access to HubSpot Academy, tutorials, best practices and client examples
•Landing page, email, and blog templates of your website

Go to BerncoMedia.com/techX
Fill out the form, and I will shoot you instructions on how
to apply.

We just scratched the surface
10

Other future topics:
• HubSpot Demo
• Buyer personas
• Content strategy
• Buyers Journey deep-dive
• Analytics that matter for inbound
• Web design
• And more…

Can Bernco Media help my
company?
11

Bernco Media
Yes. If you wo old like assistance, I am more than happy
to help.
doc@berncomedia.com - 801-438-4055

You May Find Interesting:
www.berncomedia.com/resources

Darin “Doc” Berntson
Twitter @iGoByDoc @BerncoMedia
doc@berncomedia.com
www.berncomedia.com - 801.438.4055
Thank You

Homework / Study Group
Brainstorm at least 10 blog post ideas
We wat these to be Awareness Stage 
Helpful - Educational - Solving a Problem
CTAs and Offers
What 2 or 3 offers could you create that would be at the
end of the blog post, and would be something helpful to
convert your visitor into a lead?

The Big 5
• Cost
• Problems
• Versus
• Reviews
• Best

Growing a Startup With Inbound Marketing - Bernco Media

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