GistMarketingPlan 2010

2010 Online Marketing Plan
The recommended marketing strategy to support Gist’s growth
from a free product model serving early innovators and into a
paid model serving targeted industries.
DALTON DAVIS
LALEH HASSIBI
KATHLEEN HENDERSON
ELEANOR BOANOAN

UW Advanced Interactive Marketing 2010 Online Marketing Plan
Page 1
Online Marketing Plan
Contents
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................... 3

2.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................................... 5

2.1Company Overview .......................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Market Summary .............................................................................................................................. 5

2.2.1 Market Demographics and Psychographics.......................................................................... 5

2.2.2 Market Needs............................................................................................................................. 7

2.2.3 Market Trends and Expected Growth ................................................................................... 8

2.3 SWOT................................................................................................................................................. 9

2.3.1 Strengths ....................................................................................................................................10

2.3.2 Weaknesses ..............................................................................................................................10

2.3.3 Opportunities ............................................................................................................................10

2.3.4 Threats........................................................................................................................................10

2.4 Competition......................................................................................................................................11

2.4.1 Competitive Landscape...........................................................................................................12

2.4.2 Core Competency by Competitor.........................................................................................12

2.4.3 Competitive Features...............................................................................................................13

2.4.4 Competitive Pricing..................................................................................................................13

2.5 Products and Services....................................................................................................................13

2.5.1 What is Gist?.............................................................................................................................13

2.5.2 Product Details..........................................................................................................................14

2.6 Keys to Success................................................................................................................................15

2.6.1 Jump the Chasm........................................................................................................................15

2.6.2 Build user base and reach a state of financial feasibility ...............................................16

2.6.3 Customer Retention and LTV ..................................................................................................16

2.6.4 Market Driven Approach across company..........................................................................17

2.7 Macro-environment.........................................................................................................................17

2.7.1 Economic trends ........................................................................................................................17

2.7.2 Technological trends: ...............................................................................................................17

3.0 ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY................................................................................. 18

Key Issue: Moving Average Performers to Great Performers ...................................................19

Key Issue: Saving Money and Time.................................................................................................19

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What tactics do people trust? ..........................................................................................................20

3.1Earned Media...................................................................................................................................20

3.1.1 Viral Growth .............................................................................................................................21

3.1.2 Social Media.............................................................................................................................21

Xinureturns.com....................................................................................................................................25

3.1.3 SEO: Organic Search = Free Traffic....................................................................................26

3.2 Owned Media.................................................................................................................................28

3.2.1 Paid Search...............................................................................................................................30

3.2.2 Email ...........................................................................................................................................32

3.2.3 Display Advertising via Partnerships....................................................................................35

Mashable “Real Results” Series Sponsorship.................................................................................35

3.3 Campaign Timeline and Tactics ...................................................................................................38

3.4 Measurement and Optimization ..................................................................................................39

3.5 Initial Budget and Projected Campaign Results........................................................................40

4.0 APPENDIX : FINANCIALS, BUDGETS, FORECASTS ...................................................... 41

4.1 History and Five year growth projections by Category.........................................................41

4.2 Expense Forecast............................................................................................................................41

4.3 Media Model/Contribution Margin ............................................................................................42

Page 3
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An online marketing campaign is an essential component to the growth expectations of Gist. As Gist grows
from beta usage in the early adoption stage of its products’ lifecycle into a paid model serving targeted
industries, success depends on an effective and well-defined marketing plan including clear and concise
messaging and a finely targeted approach.
Gist offers a well-regarded, innovative, cloud-based email SRM (Social Relationship Management) tool. The
company is well-funded and well-positioned to serve the needs of today’s fast-changing business
marketplace. A need has arisen to easily manage the increased amounts of information business professionals
get from the internet about companies and contacts that are important to them. Gist is well-poised to deliver
the predominant solution to this problem of information overload.
The competitive environment is vast, rapidly changing, and ill-defined. Competitors fall into several general
categories including CRM-Enterprise; email/social media and social networking platforms. Gist will face
competition for users across all of these categories. Being that competition is an area of continual change, with
new offerings emerging every month and advancements rapidly releasing for existing products, this is an
area where Gist will need to carefully monitor and react to over time.
Today’s macro-environment is one in which unemployment rates are higher than they’ve been in years. As
companies try to find ways to succeed in a depressed economy, they turn to more efficient and economical
operations. In following this trend, cloud-based technology is increasing quickly, fueling online information
growth. As this information access increases, so does the need to effectively manage that information.
One of the key micro-economic trends is extreme growth, both current and projected, in the utilization of
social media in the business world. Though social media has been primarily used by casual users, business
users are beginning to realize and capitalize on the information advantage from social media. They are
finding benefits in networking via social media and also branding opportunities. While it is true that Gist could
be used by anyone, it is important to realize that the people who would be willing to pay for the utility that
Gist provides, and would receive the most success with it, are those business users who rely on their
relationships to advance their businesses.
These relationship-centric business people who would most benefit from Gist are those who are already
heavily involved with online information gathering about their key relationships, such as sales people,
executives, real estate professionals, etc. These are the people who are most feeling the pain caused by the
amount of time necessary to sift and sort through the masses of information about the people they care most
about that resides in social media sources, their email inboxes, blogs and other online content. The time
wasted dealing with the information overload directly relates to bottom-line dollars with sales professionals, a
market segment we recommend Gist target first. Not only are sales people relationship dependent, but their
use of social media is currently growing rapidly and is predicted to continue to grow, thereby increasing the
addressable market size of this segment.
One of the critical issues involving Gist’s future success lies in jumping the chasm defined by Geoffrey Moore
in technology products. Gist is currently in the early adopter stage of the product lifecycle and future success
depends on moving into the business mainstream. Because of company size and market needs, we recommend
that Gist support highly targeted market efforts with a whole-company approach to a specific market,
namely sales professionals initially. Once market dominance has been reached in the sales segment, Gist can
shift marketing efforts to other relationship-centric target markets. We believe that this highly targeted
approach will carry Gist across the chasm, achieve market dominance, and build a strong basis for viral
growth, thereby ensuring future success.

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Other critical indicators of success are customer retention and lifetime value of a customer (LTV). Improvements
in these values will help to ensure financial feasibility for Gist.
The online marketing strategy recommended for Gist includes components of earned and owned media. With
the idea of targeting sales professionals, we recommend that Gist begin now with earned media
improvements and new tactics and begin paying for marketing tactics as it becomes financially feasible to do
so, i.e. when revenues from paid subscriptions begin to be generated. More specifically, we recommend an
earned media campaign based on viral marketing, social media and search engine optimization (SEO).
Recommendations for paid media include paid search, email, sponsorships and display advertising. The key
factors to success of all marketing tactics are in creating an effective and persuasive landing page and in
carefully testing and monitoring across all campaigns.
To follow is the recommended online marketing plan for Gist. This plan will meet the company’s main goals of
growing user base, building credibility, and achieving profitability.

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2.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
2.1Company Overview
With funding from Vulcan Capital and Foundry Group, Gist was started in 2008 by T.A. McCann to serve the
idea of connecting information from a personal inbox with web-published information. Gist’s mission statement
is this: “Gist allows you to create more effective conversations by allowing you to focus on people and
companies that matter most to you today.”
Gist is beyond the start-up phase of company growth. The current focus is on fine-tuning product definition
and development efforts in preparation for transition from offering a free beta version of the product to the
launch of a paid subscription-based product. The primary goal of the company is to achieve 1.1 million users
by the middle of 2011.
2.2 Market Summary
In proposing target markets, demographic profiles, overall and addressable market sizes, and
psychographics are all considered.
2.2.1 Market Demographics and Psychographics
Currently, since Gist is such a new player in the market, target markets are still in the process of being fully
defined. A general demographic profile of a valuable Gist user is someone who is relationship-centric, for
example sales personnel. More specifically, a key market target are sales personnel who are predominantly
in inside sales versus outside, young, active on the Internet and working in unregulated industries. The following
information is a more detailed profile of a target Gist user.
Likely Gist users also use these products:
18%

10%

15%

57%

LinkedIn

CRM

FaceBook

Outlook
Enterprise
Users

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A valuable Gist user is:
• Similar to these users:
o Xobni : 67% male; age 35-49;
o Salesforce : 51% male; age 35-49;
o LinkedIn: 54% male; age 35-49.
• Business person dependent on relationships (i.e. execs, sales, HR, biz dev, VC, PR, lawyers).
• High % of relationships out of his company.
• Early adopter of technology.
• Uses technology to gain competitive advantage.
• Trained to pay monthly fees:
o Blackberry/ iPhone ;
o CRM;
o LinkedIn;
• Influencer of others or small teams.
MARKET SIZE BY PROFESSIONAL SEGMENT
Based on the above demographic profile and market sizes, the following charts show recommended targeted
segments for Gist’s marketing efforts. The first chart specifically breaks down the amount of personnel within
each segment and the second shows by percentage. It is evident the sales segment is a big opportunity for
Gist to establish market share within.

3,326,890

2,352,510

1,999,620

553,690

495,230

327,780

296,130

276,820

215,470

-‐

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

Sales

Finance/SecuriIes

ExecuIves

Lawyers

Ad/MarkeIng/PR

Insurance

HR/Training

Computer/InformaIon

Real
Estate

segment

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2.2.2 Market Needs
Relationship centric people, such as those in the targeted professions above, need additional automation to
help them easily access information about their key contacts. As information exists in more places than ever
before, i.e. on the web, in email inboxes, in social media, etc., a need to organize, prioritize, consolidate and
deliver this information has arisen.
The chart to follow breaks down the target markets further by psychographics and business needs. When
cross-referenced with the market size, the segments highlighted in yellow show the areas of primary focus for
Gist, while the areas in blue show secondary focus areas.
Profession
Early
Adopters
Influencers
Use
CRM
Maintain a
Book of
Business
Relationship-
building is
Key
Use Technology
For Competitive
Advantage
Ad/Marketing/PR x x x
Computer/
Information
x x
Executives x x
Financial/
Securities
x x
ad/markeIng

2%

Computer/

InformaIon

mgr

3%

execuIves

20%
ﬁnance

21%

HR
/Training

3%

Insurance

3%

lawyers

6%

PR

3%

real
estate

2%

sales

34%

securiIes

3%

Category

Page 8
HR/Training x
Insurance x x
Lawyers x
Real Estate x x
Sales x x x x x
2.2.3 Market Trends and Expected Growth
With over 46% of adults in the US participating in social networks and 25% of that group doing so every
week, it is clear that social media is not for just a certain type of user from a specific age group, but is now a
permanent fixture in both our personal and professional lives. The initial value social media has brought to
the corporate world is to enhance internal communications and build knowledge sharing between employees.
Hiring managers and recruiters are using social media as a viable recruitment tool. There has been a great
deal of positive momentum with sales professionals beginning to adopt social media in their sales process by
using networks such as LinkedIn as a means to qualify key decision makers and build professional
relationships. Social Media is also proving to help sales reps be more prepared for that critical first
conversation with a prospect by obtaining the gist of someone’s professional background and the industry
they reside. Existing sales intelligence resources such as Hoover’s are now being taken a step further by
adding the social element of a company’s profile as offered by applications such as InsideView and Gist.
These new tools offer real-time intelligence on prospective customers thereby greatly reducing time spent
qualifying leads and researching. To that end, a 2009 study last year by the IDC, a research firm, found that
sales reps spend 6-10 hours hunting for information. Now, by utilizing Sales 2.0 software they can greatly
reduce their time researching and spend more time filling their pipeline by calling on targeted leads and
closing more deals.
Though social media is being widely adopted by business users, there are still many executives who are slow
to adopt because they don’t know enough about how
to use social media. Other concerns such as
confidentiality and employee productivity are also
holding back the initial adoption of social media
strategies inside corporations. Some analysts take
the view that business-to-business marketers should
also proceed cautiously when weaving social media
into their business processes. These observers
recommend careful market research to determine if
and where the phenomenon can provide measurable
benefits for client interactions, sales, and support.
The growth of social media is fueling the need for
greater information management. As companies
continue to recognize social media as a great

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resource for both building relationships and establishing brand awareness, the utilization of social media
services will grow. As the numbers of people using social media continue to increase, so will Gist’s addressable
market size. In addition, as this utilization increases so does a business user’s information overload and
coincidentally their need for tools, such as Gist, to manage that information effectively.
To follow are some current statistics on the use and expected growth of social media:
• 800 million visits to big social media sites in October 2009;
• $425 million revenue generated in 2009, growth to $2 billion by 2012;
• 430 million Facebook users.
SALES 2.0
Sales 2.0 is another trend that must be accounted for. According to an article from Inside CRM, “Sales 2.0:
How Will It Improve Your Business?,” Sales 2.0 can be defined as, “Sales 2.0 brings together customer-
focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science.
Sales 2.0 relies on a repeatable, collaborative and customer-enabled process that runs through the sales and
marketing organization, resulting in improved productivity, predictable ROI and superior performance.”
Sales 2.0:
• Focuses on equality, empowerment, collaboration and speed.
• Creates an ecosystem that sustains all stakeholders: the customer, the company, the salesperson, the
sales manager and the marketing manager. All members of the ecosystem are equal and
interconnected partners.
• Levels the playing field by turning sales into a science, salespeople into professionals and managers
into more rational and motivated leaders.
• Dramatically lowers the cost, reduces the risk of failure and increases the chances of successful
deployment with positive short-term and long-term ROI (Return on Investment). Many of the end users
of Sales 2.0 solutions also note that Sales 2.0 brings more fun back to selling.
SOCIAL CRM (SRM / SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT)
The purpose of Social CRM is to monitor, manage and engage conversations and relationships with existing
and prospective customers and influencers across the internet, social networks, and digital channels.
There are many Social CRM tools in the market that offer this functionality to companies of all sizes. When
drilling down into the feature set and core competencies of these tools a market segment emerges called
Social Relationship Management (SRM). Here SRM has the capability of storing profile information on a
contact or company and allowing the user to monitor and maintain that contact in the same way a contact is
managed in a standard CRM system. An SRM tool can therefore work very well for a professional who own
and runs their own business as a single entity and does not have access or the budget for a high end CRM
system that provides a social monitoring module. Gist can therefore capitalize on this growing market trend in
contact management.
2.3 SWOT

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2.3.1 Strengths
• Credibility-Gist was incubated in Vulcan Capital and is funded by Foundry Group, both well
respected companies in the technology and venture capital worlds.
• Employees-Gist recruited the best developers from such “A” companies as Google, Microsoft and
Amazon.
• Agility-Gist pushes out new product releases every two weeks. It takes development direction from
users and industry experts.
• Name-Memorable and fun.
• Innovative-Gist is at the cutting edge of social media and is using it to develop its user community.
Gist has been selected as the most innovative startup by various tech and venture groups in 2009 and
2010.
• Gist has aggressively and successfully used Communication 2.0 to excite and engage their
prospective users. Webinars, conferences, and the engagement of influential technology bloggers are
tactics successfully being used to market Gist to user communities.
2.3.2 Weaknesses
• Product is in a state of evolution. Users that join early in the development cycle may drop out early
(creating retention issues) before their needs are fully met by the product.
• Product is not set up to encourage viral user growth. A Gist user does not have to invite adoption
of Gist to make it more valuable (LinkedIn model).
• Retention of Gist users past initial adoption appears to be a challenge. Users need to have contacts
that are extremely active in social media and/or on the web to make Gist worth using.
• Customer service scalability. Many users may need hands-on support to get up to speed in order to
make Gist usable.
• Gist appeals to the technorati, they must move into the regular business community and create the
same buzz and adoption.(jumping the chasm)
• Landing page needs to be more engaging. It needs a more engaging product introduction, either an
engaging video or a step-by-step introduction to encourage new users to adopt the product.
2.3.3 Opportunities
• SMB CRM marketplace with a focus on sales professionals, HR professionals, Real Estate Professionals.
Anyone whose business requires them to track and maintain actionable information on a variety of
companies and contacts.
• Targeting social network users on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and in targeted communities by
business segment.
2.3.4 Threats
• Many competitors in the CRM and email aggregator space. (See competition below)
• Lack of clear product definition in a competitive marketplace. What is Gist? Is it an email
aggregator, social media tool or CRM tool? Lack of clear identity makes target marketing difficult.
• Enterprise CRM marketplace saturated. Gist’s sweet spot, the SMB marketplace, is a much more price
sensitive segment.
• Converting from freemium model successfully in 2010 and generating sufficient revenue.

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2.4 Competition
With the need to reduce time sifting and filtering through information streaming from multiple social
networking accounts, most users are now seeking tools to aggregate key information on companies and
people that are important to them and their business. New “social aggregation” software applications have
emerged to fill these needs, each providing their own unique functionality and value to the B2B market. There
are several categories the competition fall into: CRM-Enterprise, SRM, and Social Networking Platforms.
Within CRM systems, social tools are either built-in as a proprietary module or offer the ability for 3rd party
stand-alone applications to integrate. The CRM module such as Salesforce’s Chatter and Microsoft Dynamic’s
Social Accelerator are primarily being used for internal communication and customer engagement where 3rd
party add-on applications such as SocialCRMTools.com and InsideView allow users to view all current social
data on a prospective or existing customer inside the Salesforce lead and contact record.
A key element to any successful SRM tool is the ability to draw data for a data base of “contacts.” CRM
systems and social networking sites each have contacts living inside their systems. Stand-alone products,
however don’t have this innate benefit so they instead connect to one’s email contact list. In these cases, Xobni
offers email search and organization functionality while Outlook Social Connector and Gist share similarities
by drawing social information posted by email contacts. Gist and Sprout Social are true stand alone SRM
systems by housing profiles of contacts. Gist however offers the ability to upload contact lists regardless of
whether these contacts are participating in social media. Sprout Social contact management system only saves
profiles on contacts who are participating in social media.
Social Network platforms such as LinkedIn have yet to provide social aggregation functionality. This is due
primarily to their desire of keeping their users inside their platforms so they can monetize their users through
advertising and premium offered upgrade services.
Pricing is standard for SaaS applications where a free version is offered with limited functionality succeeded
by a premium version that offers full functionality. Fees are generally monthly subscriptions and some offer a
one-time fee such as the Salesforce product.

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2.4.1 Competitive Landscape
2.4.2 Core Competency by Competitor
Social
Networking

• LinkedIn

• Plaxo

• TwiWer

• Facebook

• MySpace

• Google
Buzz

Email/Social
Media

• Xobni

• InsideView

• Outlook
Social
Connector

CRM-‐Enterprise

• SalesForce

• Sage

• Microso]
Dynamics

• Salesboom

• Rightnow

• Oracle

• Act

Product Solution Provided
Gist Social Relationship Management aggregator that provides business-
critical information about people and companies that matter most
InsideView Business, research, and sales intelligence productivity tools
Xobni Outlook plugin that helps search and organize email
Plaxo Unified, smart address book that helps stay in touch with valuable
work and personal contacts.
Outlook Social Connector Connects social and business networks including Microsoft SharePoint,
Windows Live
SocialCRMTools.com Salesforce 3rd party application that aggregates social data from
prospective leads and existing customers.
Spindex
Social aggregator from Microsoft that is primarily used for the B2C
market.

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2.4.3 Competitive Features
2.4.4 Competitive Pricing
Pricing and product features are in a continual state of evolution. Here’s a snapshot of where competitors’
pricing stands today.
2.5 Products and Services
2.5.1 What is Gist?
SproutSocial Social Relationship Management aggregator that provides business
information about people and companies.

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Gist is a cloud-based software tool available to users on a free, and soon, subscription basis. It was
developed with the goal of simplifying information overload about key contacts. The initial question of Gist
founders was this: “What if you could Google your inbox?” The answer was as follows: “Create an
importance-based dashboard showing you news by and about your most important contacts.”
OVERVIEW OF THE PRODUCT BASED ON INTERVIEWS OF T.A. MCCANN:
“Gist helps you build stronger professional relationships by leveraging the contacts, connections, and content in
your email inbox, your social networks, and across the web to provide you meaningful insight about your most
important contacts and their companies in less time with less effort.”
Gist works with Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, and Salesforce improving the information available in these
applications by constantly seeking out and updating individual and company profiles. These updates come
from the latest information on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, over 20 million blogs, and
over 50,000 news sources. Additionally, an iPhone application is available providing on-the-go access to your
information.
Product Highlights:
• Creates and Stores Contact Profiles - individual and company profiles automatically created and
updated as new information becomes available.
• Most relevant data - the most relevant information about the most important contacts presented in
email, CRM system, or mobile device.
• Creates platform for action – a user can share news and contact details or initiate various types of
communication from the profile itself.
2.5.2 Product Details
Product Tiers Where you work What you do Competitive
Advantage
• Freemium (today) • Gmail/IMAP • Read • Ranking

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• Premium
(Estimated 2010)
• Enterprise (TBD)
• Outlook
• Lotus Notes
• LinkedIn
• Salesforce/CRM
• Facebook
• Twitter
• RSS
• Share
• Engage
• Amplify
• Cloud based
• Public profile
• Dossier
2.6 Keys to Success
• Face the challenge of jumping the chasm of communication that exists between the early adoption of
innovators and the business-centric market majority.
• Build critical user base and achieve financial stability through conversion to paid users.
• Establish a plan for retention of customers once they sign up for the product.
• Develop a company-wide market driven approach to achieve maximum penetration in target markets.
• The trend toward greater utilization of social media by business users must continue for Gist’s success.
2.6.1 Jump the Chasm
As defined by Geoffrey Moore, in high tech startups, the gap or chasm occurs because of the general
disconnect between the innovators, who speak loudly within the tech community, and the early majority, who
care much more about their industry than technology. They listen to people who are industry relevant, not
technology gurus. Hence the chasm exists. Gist is currently in the Early Adopter Stage and the key to success is
to get across the disconnect between the gurus and get to the targeted market segments.
• Blue: Innovators and the majority of the current Gist users. These are the people who are the techies.
• Red: A few Gist users now are early adopters and this is where Gist really needs to be focusing right
now. These are the visionaries…the market makers who see the reason for Gist and believe in it
enough to make it work for them and influence the early market. They are not the ones who will carry
the product to success because there aren’t enough of them.

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• Green: The early majority are pragmatists. They care about the company they are buying from, its
products, interfaces and service. They will buy and influence others vertically meaning in the same
industry.
2.6.2 Build user base and reach a state of financial feasibility
Gist must successfully market the product in order to fill the funnel to maximize conversions to new Gist
users, some of who will pay for the product thereby fueling the company’s future financial success.
Assumptions for User growth:
• Paid users are projected to be 4% of retained users based on results from similar freemium models.
Model assumes:
o an average monthly revenue per user of $30.
o three paid subscription levels: enterprise, standard and a-la-carte features.
• User growth is based on a variety of factors:
o Actual growth rate in 2009 (users doubled every quarter)
o Advertising spend equal to 12.6% of revenue in marketing over a 5 year period.
o Viral user growth at 30% of total new users. Model assumes a 1.5 viral kicker=25% of users will
invite 10 friends to use Gist. 15% of those invited will sign up.
o Assumes retaining 75% of users (based in industry information and not actual Gist retention rates).
2.6.3 Customer Retention and LTV
The key elements to Gist’s growth and profitability are conversion, customer retention and LTV. Generally
speaking, for every one thousand visitors that you get to your site, you can engage one of them to sign up.
Some keys to getting people to stay are constantly updating features, clear messaging within the product and
engaging users in a conversation or feedback. Gist does a very good job in engaging users by constantly
soliciting feedback on features. Gist has a two week development and feature introduction cycle. Initially Gist
has reported some issues with retention but as new features are introduced and users find more value in their
own network in using Gist then retention is expected to go up. Gist needs to engage socially active (users that
have Facebook accounts, are on LinkedIn, blog, use Twitter) users with contacts that are also socially active in
order for Gist to have maximum value. Currently the model assumes that Gist will lose about 6% to 7% of
users that sign up a week but can be adjusted based on Gist’s real results. Total LTV for a paying user is
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

users
34,923

244,634

904,604

2,028,162

2,722,561

paid
users
7,280

33,801

80,372

108,664

-‐

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

Page 17
projected at $392.85 (approximately 13 months of paid usage) for 4% of the users. LTV with costs netted out
are approximately $227.85 (based on margin projections see appendix). These are approximations based
on research and modeling and will need to be updated as the business evolves.
2.6.4 Market Driven Approach across company
One of the critical keys to success for Gist, since it is a small company with limited resources, is to make a
whole company and product commitment to one or two niche markets with the goal of deep penetration into
those target markets. In order to successfully get across a technology chasm, as seems to exist in Gist’s world,
a company must achieve a beachhead in a mainstream market. In order to create this pragmatist customer
base the product must completely meet those customer’s objectives. That means not only a set of product tools,
but a complete set of services along with those tools to enable them to meet their desired results. Since this
could be expensive and time-consuming to do for everyone in the target markets, a luxury a small company
like Gist can’t afford, focusing on dominating one influential market and moving forward virally from there is
a viable approach for Gist.
2.7 Macro-environment
2.7.1 Economic trends
The economic environment that Gist is entering has many challenges however there is recent data showing
improvement. As reported by the Commerce Department, the economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in
the first quarter of 2010, after expanding at a 5.6 percent pace in the last three months of 2009. Consumer
spending accelerated to a 3.6 percent pace, the biggest gain in three years. The labor market is likely to
determine the pace of spending in Q2 2010. The jobless rate is projected to end the 2010 year at 9.4
percent, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg last month. Unemployment
reached 10.1 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. With signs of recovery comes good news for
Gist and: April 2010 was the ninth straight month that online sales rose compared to a year earlier.
2.7.2 Technological trends:
In a recent survey from CompTIA, three hundred Enterprise and SMB IT professionals were surveyed to get
their take on what IT trends will be most prevalent for 2010. The leading trend was the increased use of
consumer based technology inside the enterprise market. This is good for Gist since its product can be used
for both B2B and B2C. There will also be greater use of alternative productivity applications such as Zoho
and Sugar CRM. Again, this is another positive trend for Gist since it falls in this category. The use of social
networks to sell and market products will continue to grow as well more strategic use as a communication tool
both internally (employees) and externally (customers). Social Networks will also continue to add tremendous
value not only to those who are working in their company office but also for those working remotely, a trend
that will increase in 2010. The technology industry will see increased mergers and acquisitions as well as an
increase in the use of off-shoring technology services. Cloud computing and SaaS software will continue to
grow to support general consumers and business needs. According to a report by Gartner Inc., cloud
computing services will also become so complex that consumers will need to utilize “brokerages” to ensure that
they can integrate continuous services and receive the levels of service and reliability that make cloud
computing worthwhile. Of importance to Gist, the social aggregation market is growing with Google Buzz and
Microsoft Spindex entering the market proving that Gist’s business is very relevant. Lastly, the market for
mobile applications is a major battleground among smart phone platforms, which has become one of the
hottest arenas in the tech world.

Page 18
3.0 ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY
The main business goal of Gist is to build revenue as the premium paid service is rolled out in mid-2010. In
supporting that main business goal, the primary objectives of an online marketing strategy for Gist are as
follows:
The following recommendation was created to meet these objectives. It was found that narrowing down the
audience to targeted segments who find networking important is the most effective approach in creating
awareness. From there, the following marketing tactics combined with the right messaging are recommended
based on current marketing efforts as well as budget constraints. The expected results are improved
credibility and conversion of site visitors into both free and paid users.
Fill
the

funnel

• Reach
key
market
segments
to
create
awareness
and
drive
site
traﬃc

with:

• Viral
MarkeIng,
Social
Media,
Partnerships
and
Display
AdverIsing.

Drive

AdopIon

• Generate
1.1m
Gist
users
by
mid
2011

• Landing
Page:
Clear
value
proposiIon/call
to
acIon.

• Email,
Viral
MarkeIng,
Search.

Improve

RetenIon

• Convert
4%
of
Gist
users
to
paid
subscripIons.

• Clear
messaging
to
subscribers
via
Email
and
from
within
Gist.

Page 19
How to Make Gist a Painkiller
A successful segment campaign will address the key issues in each segment, for example listed below are
some of the issues that affect someone who works as a sales professional, the recommended segment to start
with. Demonstrating how Gist can address some of the core problems in a segment will make is a tool that is
a “painkiller” for this group.
Key Issue: Moving Average Performers to Great Performers
Key Issue: Saving Money and Time
Audience

• Sales

• ExecuIves

• Human
Resources

• TechnoraI

• Real
Estate

• MarkeIng/PR

TacIcs

• Viral
from
within
Gist

• Social
Media

• SEO
&
SEM

• Email/Partnerships

• Display
Ads/
Partnerships

Expected
Results

• Build
credibility
within

targeted
segments

• New
free
and
paid

Gist
Users

Page 20
DEFINING TACTICS
What tactics do people trust?
With online marketing today, some studies show that tactics internet users trust most are recommendations
made from people they know. On that note, Gist’s product is positioned exactly that way. The usage of the
product is based off of a user’s network and expands virally from there.
3.1Earned Media

Page 21
3.1.1 Viral Growth
The key to viral growth lies in engaging customers or users to evangelize the product. If you can build a tool
or application that gets more useful as each person you invite adopts it, you can build a business with
phenomenal power. LinkedIn and Facebook are two incredibly successful examples of Social Media tools built
by users through viral growth.
TACTICS FOR VIRAL GROWTH
Some suggestions for Gist that could make the product more engaging and generate viral growth are:
 Expand communication with existing users:
 Daily email updates including:
 new contacts;
 activities of highly rated contacts;
 day’s calendar activities.
 Make the “invite a contact” feature more robust.
 Expand Widgets:
 Existing-Outlook, Salesforce;
 Additions-LinkedIn, iGoogle, Gmail.
 Mobile:
 Existing-iphone;
 Additions-Android;
 New feature-Learn that Name
(part of iPhone).
3.1.2 Social Media
Within social media, Gist has already done
a great job of establishing credibility in this
arena by creating Facebook pages, Twitter
pages, LinkedIn groups and engaging users
on its website through feedback and by
creating a robust blog.
In already establishing this foundation, it is
recommended that Gist now focus their social
media efforts on important influencers and
segment leaders who have a large following:
current Gist power users who are on LinkedIn
and Twitter. From there, it would be ideal to
create a user community for these segments to receive feedback on product
development. With the right messaging and tools (videos, blogs, articles), Gist must establish segmented
partnerships, and utilize social media tools on partners’ sites to gain visibility (ie. their subscribers lists,
eNewsletter blurbs, online communities, providing articles for their site to “share,” etc.).

Page 22
In developing appropriate
recommendations it was
important to understand how
business is using social media
and know what tools they are
actually using. Business.com did
a 2009 Business Social Media
Benchmarking Study, a 44-page
white paper covering current
social media trends in both the
B2B and B2C arenas including:
• Top social media tools used for business information;
• The departments driving corporate media social media initiatives - Marketing, Customer Service,
Product or other;
• Top business social media initiatives, and how companies measure the success of these initiatives;
• Ratings of top social media sites for business use.
Listed below are some of the key findings and how Gist compares with companies using Social Media for B2B
initiatives with a few areas of improvement noted:

Page 23

Page 24
TARGET SEGMENTS IN KEY SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
Engaging key segments using social media tools they already using, such as on Facebook and LinkedIn, is the
best way for Gist to expand marketing efforts in this arena. Listed below are recommended activities:
SOCIAL MEDIA/VIRAL GROWTH TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION PLAN
Monitoring the success of Social Media involves tracking the following elements:
• Number of blogs and posts;
• Comments from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites;
• Links and content shared;
• Backlinks from key influencers’ blogs.
These can be tracked with the following(among others):
• Google Alerts for URL/word monitoring;
• Technorati (real-time search for user-generated media by tag or keyword);
• Feedburner (web feed management provider, provides custom RSS feeds and management tools to
bloggers, podcasters, and other web-based content publishers);
• Google Analytics Social Media add-on;
• Xinureturns.com(see example below).

Page 25
Xinureturns.com
Tracking viral activity is somewhat more problematic but working with companies such as Meteor Solutions
which allows the tracking of links passed around by users could make this task easier. Since viral growth is
critical to Gist, it would be well worth the investment.

Page 26
3.1.3 SEO: Organic Search = Free Traffic
Gist can improve page rank within organic search listings with some improvements to the crawlability of their
web site. But site development is just one aspect of SEO. The other, important focus should be on backlinks
which create the greatest value. The benefits of SEO are that it:
• Improves reach to large, targeted audiences.
• Drives a majority of traffic to the site.
• Conversions are typically higher than paid search.
• Provides unbeatable ROI since it is free.
The key components of SEO for Gist are:
• Inbound Links (aka backlinks)
o The More “Quality” Links, the Better
o Great Content
o Social Media
• Site Architecture
o Compactness and “Crawlability”
o Link Structure
• Page Design
o Meta Tags
o Keywords
Looking at the Hubspot website competitive analysis below, it is apparent that Gist is doing well overall with
a website grade of 99, but still there are areas of potential improvement as called out below.
WEBSITE COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Page 27
GIST WEB SITE IMPROVEMENT TARGETS
• Website organized using Google Site Maps.
• Improve Meta Data by shortening current Meta Description from 164 characters: “Gist helps build
stronger relationships by connecting the inbox to the web to provide business critical information
about the people and companies that matter most” to less than 150. Here’s a suggested example:
“Build better business relationships with time critical information about the companies and people that
matter most.”
• Include most important keywords in anchor text and also in URLs.
• Increase and improve number of sub-pages from current three. Include more keywords and key
phrases in page titles.
• Create more backlinks to both main site and blog from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gist Blog.
• Increase comments on other industry relevant blogs. Include link.
SEO RECOMMENDED MONITORING TOOLS:
• Compete
o Traffic by Keyword
o Competitive Benchmarking
• Alexa
o Link Info
• Hubspot
O FREE, Automatic SEO Audit

Page 28
3.2 Owned Media
In addition to the earned media tactics listed above, a successful online marketing campaign for Gist will
include paid tactics as well. These include:
• Paid search;
• E-mail campaigns;
• Sponsorships;
• Display Advertising.
One of the key factors for success for all of these marketing ideas is an engaging and effective landing
page. We recommend that Gist create a new page on the main website that is specific to each target market.
To follow are creative ideas to use as an examples of how to proceed with this.
SIMPLE SALES LANDING PAGE EXAMPLE
One idea for Gist is to create a simple descriptive page with a form to sign up immediately available. Gist
could create this inexpensively in-house.

Page 29
WHITEBOARD ANIMATION EXAMPLE
We really like the idea of this simplistic animated video as an interesting, engaging and creative way to
explain a complicated product like Gist to potential users. This could be produced externally for about
$6000 to $8000 (Source: Andres Krogh/Enborra.com). Here is a site that describes how to create a
whiteboard animation:
www.tvlesson.com/video/42074_how-to-make-a-white-board-stop-animation.html
Here is an example of a whiteboard animation for another product that was difficult to explain:
www.plasticjungle.com/pjweb/control/retailers

Page 30
3.2.1 Paid Search
PAID SEARCH TACTICS
In addition to improvements in organic search listings, the following paid search tactics are also recommended.
Start with Google but also buy keywords and search advertising on Yahoo and MSN.
CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION
Campaign optimization for SEM is difficult but critical. To follow are the main items to test and continually
improve:
• To get more clicks at fixed eCPC:
o Review and cull keywords;
o Add more specificity to keywords;
o Increase the number of keywords.
• Review and cull Ad groups and Ads:
o Modify targeting criteria;
o Geography;
o Daypart.
• Traffic Estimator
• Testing
o A/B ads;
o Ad composition;
o Same headline, different descriptions;
o Different headlines, same descriptions;
o Test landing pages by using the same copy, with different destination URLs.

Page 31
• Analyze using Google Analytics, Omniture, SpyFu, Compete or similar.

Page 32
3.2.2 Email
An email campaign is another effective marketing vehicle recommendation for Gist. Gist has already taken
the initiative in implementing email tactics and we propose these efforts are continued and tweaked as
follows.
WHY USE EMAIL?
Email is the best way to reach and communicate with customers. The main reasons to use email are:
• Create awareness of upcoming events, product enhancements, sales, etc.;
• Drive new and upgraded customer subscriptions;
• Drive visits and engagement;
• Enable pass-along and social spread of new and interesting content;
• Solicit customer feedback to improve customer retention.
EMAIL TACTICS
An example email campaign Gist successfully
executed was utilizing a resource called Help a
Reporter Out (HARO). HARO is a social media
service that brings together reporters and
bloggers over new sources and small businesses
together to tell stories, promote brands and sell
their products and services. Gist did an email
campaign through HARO’s list, targeting an
audience of segment influencers. Examples
such as this resource and other email
marketing services are tactics that can be
easily monitored to fit within Gist’s budget.
One of the advantages of doing an email
campaign with HARO is that they offer a
75% open rate. Industry average is 23%.
Campaign
Source
Example:

Help
a
Reporter
Out
(HARO)

75%
open
rate
3
Imes
the
average

Campaign
Content:

Image
w/
link
to
video
clip,
landing
page,

introducIon
from
a
trusted
source
or
Gist

Founder

Campaign
Term:

ongoing

Campaign
Frequency:

Based
on
quality/
cost
of
lists

Q3
2010

3
blasts
a
week
for
a
total
of
35
with
100,000

users
per
list

TargeDng
Audience
of

Segment
Inﬂuencers

Page 33
Although a HARO email campaign has already been implemented, here is another recommended campaign:
• Targeting an audience of segment influencers;
• Embedded image with a link to a video clip;
• Landing page;
• Introduction from a trusted source or Gist founder;
• Recommended frequency of this campaign would depend on the quality and
expense of the list;
• 3 blasts a week, with 100,000 users per list;
• Starting in Q3 2010 and ongoing from there.
EMAIL SAMPLE
To the right is an email sample we recommend Gist follow
because of its simplicity. We also recommend that if it is a
lead generation email, key features such as clear
messaging, a compelling offer and links/placement are
included in an effective email.
SAMPLE LIST SOURCES

Page 34
EMAIL TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION
Most email services have a testing component as part of their services. Gist has used MailChimp in the past
and listed below is a sample of the services, they provide.
Most email services will allow you to track your open rate as well as how many emails bounced, were not
opened and clicked through to your website or offer.
Testing all components of an email campaign is critical. A list of the things that should be tested:
• Personalization vs. no personalization;
• Shorter subject lines vs. longer ones;
• Deadlines to increase urgency;
• Offers;
• Different product features/benefits;
• Different message types: emotional, research based, newsy, intriguing;
• Day sent, time sent.
It is important to make one change at a time. It is also important to establish a control or baseline for testing.
Following a scientific methodology in order to develop an effective strategy is key to the success of your
efforts. It is also important to remember that conversion improvements are made incrementally.

Page 35
3.2.3 Display Advertising via Partnerships
With the budget that Gist is working with, another method of marketing that would reasonably fit within their
budget and has quality and value is the tactic of display advertising through partnership sites. Since the sales
segment is an area of focus for Gist, influential online segmented sites such as SellingPower.com should be
targeted. SellingPower.com:
• Is a resource for professional selling skills, motivation and sales management know-how in the B2B
environment;
• Offers a program for Gist to participate and contribute: advertorial/print ad, micro-site and
webinar, cost: $15,000;
• Allows reach to more than 148,000 sales managers per month online;
• Provides Sales Management eNewsletter that reaches over 95,000 readers twice a month;
• Gets over 300,000 page views per month;
• Includes these Job titles that visit SellingPower.com: CEO, VP, National Sales Manager, Regional Sales
Manager.
Mashable “Real Results” Series Sponsorship
Gist has already developed a major partnership/sponsorship program with Mashable. Mashable is a large
blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and social media news with an audience that includes groups of early
adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and more. Gist sponsors a series of articles, “ Real Results,”
aimed at how various business segments are using social media to enhance their relationships with
customers/business partners/donors and ultimately grow their business. In one example, Gist sponsored an
article that discussed how non-profit organizations are utilizing social media to help in their fund raising
efforts. This is a perfect example of targeting a segment that values the importance of networking and
relationships. Using these articles as a basis, Gist must move this information out of the technology/early
adopter world and engage sites dedicated to the specific segments they are targeting, Selling Power
(Sales Professionals), SHRM(HR), Journalists(HARO), etc. Segments that the series has addressed
are hospitality, venture capitalists, nonprofits, freelancers, recruiters, journalists, startups, PR and jobseekers.

Page 36
INDUSTRY TARGETED
SPONSORSHIP EXAMPLES:
PARTNERSHIP MARKETING TACTICS
SellingPower.com and Realtor.org are other great examples of sites that would be ideal for Gist to target for
segmented campaigns. In the comparison chart below, it shows the audience reach and the type of exposure
Gist would receive on these sites.

Page 37
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Display advertising, on influential sites where targeted users spend time such as as LinkedIn, is another
marketing avenue for Gist. LinkedIn is ideal for Gist to advertise in since networking is the basis of this social
site. It’s goal is to reconnect, discover inside connections for job or business opportunities and obtain advice
from industry experts. Industry advice is offered through their blogs and a variety of groups are created to
establish new business relationships among alumni, industry or professional members.
LinkedIn.com advertising details:
• Interconnected network of professionals. Search, be introduced to, and collaborate with professionals
to accomplish career goals;
• SMB, business decision makers, financial service, sales, marketing, startup, corporate executives, IT,
career changers;
• 55,000,000 members;
• $25,000+ for large advertisers
• small advertisers, Min. Bid: $2.00 CPC, Min. Bid: $3.00 CPM.
LinkedIn.com Advertising sizes/ samples:
We recommend Gist take out a small ad on LinkedIn as shown below. As Gist grows, a larger ad would be
another possibility.
Option A:
ad for large
advertisers
Option B:
ad for small
advertisers

Page 38
3.3 Campaign Timeline and Tactics
Below is the anticipated timeline and corresponding tactics being proposed to Gist based on the current
marketing activities and anticipated product release in September 2010. In general, earned media marketing
tactics can be implemented immediately with monitoring and improvements occurring on an ongoing basis
indefinitely. Owned media tactics should be implemented beginning the month following the release of paid
product (we estimated that would be Sept. 2010). The paid tactics should be staggered as noted on the
following timeline beginning with testing of different variables for each. Monitoring will be ongoing with all
campaigns.
Based on the current state of Gist, social media is the most feasible tactic that will assist in “filling the funnel”,
which is the main focus for Gist right now. Second to that is email, a tactic that is reasonably executable, not
only because Gist is already engaging in this activity, but also the fact it is low-priced. As search and display
are also important, the execution of these will have to be delayed until Gist becomes more profitable and
capable of fully investing into these tactics.
In general, Gist should focus all efforts, both earned and owned, on the sales segment initially. Once a market
position has been established, move on to other target markets with the same campaign rollout priorities as
described above for the sales segment.

Page 39
3.4 Measurement and Optimization

Page 40
3.5 Initial Budget and Projected Campaign Results
The initial budget for the campaign was based on Gist’s limited revenue stream and the need to test and
validate the most productive tactics to achieve Gist’s objectives. A compete projection of marketing dollars for
the next 4 years are listed in the Appendix section. Allocation by tactic should be done after initial campaign
and testing are evaluated.
Assumptions for Media Model:
• Initial budget: $50,000;
• Contribution Margin: 93%;
• Target Margin: 58%;
• Breakeven orders: 2253;
• Market Share: 0.02%;
• Addressable Market: 10,000,000;
• Note: CTR and Conversion rates are market based assumptions.
See Appendix for complete details.

Page 41
4.0 APPENDIX : FINANCIALS, BUDGETS, FORECASTS
4.1 History and Five-year Growth Projections by Category
Data in this section are extractions from a complete Gist modeling spreadsheet available by request.
copy of gistfreemiummodelv2.xls
Categories

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

Users

34,923
244,634
904,604
2,028,162
2,722,561

Growth

601%
270%
124%
34%

Paid
Users

7,280
33,801
80,372
108,664

Revenue

$1,456
$13,520
$
32,147
$
43,463

Expenses

$3,151
$3,511
$

5,784
$

9,535
$
14,857

Year-‐end
Cash

$3,599
$9,044
$16,780
$
39,393
$
67,999

4.2 Expense Forecast

Page 42
4.3 Media Model/Contribution Margin
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

Total

$3,150,735

$3,510,900

$5,783,543

$13,309,208

$11,381,932

MarkeIng
$18,750

$172,500

$1,066,406

$6,966,376

$3,491,786

Variable
$6,985

$48,927

$388,882

$875,563

$1,175,956

Fixed
$625,000

$657,895

$865,651

$1,093,454

$1,342,838

Employees
$2,500,000

$2,631,579

$3,462,604

$4,373,815

$5,371,352

$-‐

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

$30,000,000

Page 43

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