DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR STARTUPS

Anish shah 3/12/2014

WHO AM I?

Anish  Shah  Principal  Consultant  Purveyor  of  Growth  

bringruckus.com  @anish_shah  anish@bringruckus.com      

WHO AM I?

QUESTION

is digital marketing important?

WHY DO DIGITAL MARKETING?

The internet – the party everyone is at

WHY DO DIGITAL MARKETING?

Small business survey

OK, I GET IT. I NEED DIGITAL. NOW WHAT?

DIGITAL STRATEGY LIFECYCLE engagement

acquisition

activation

retention

ENGAGEMENT/ACQUISITION research

§  Find a Company Name and URL without a lot of competition online

§  Basic search on Google and Google Trends

ENGAGEMENT/ACQUISITION Blogging

§  Begin even before your company begins

§  Thought Leadership

§  Medium.com

§  Guest Blogging (HuffPo, Forbes, etc.)

ENGAGEMENT/ACQUISITION Social media

§  Build profiles and pages on all relevant social networks §  Twitter, LinkedIn, and any industry-specific social networks

§  Begin inviting people to follow, connect, like, etc. At launch time, you don’t want to be at zero.

§  Post sketches, thoughts, questions for you audience, photos of your team, etc. Keep your audience engaged.

§  Don’t post just for the sake of posting. Make sure the content is interesting, and enjoyable to the audience.

§  Ask for feedback through your Facebook page. This is a great place for early product feedback, and multiple different viewpoints. If you’re embarrassed of this interaction at launch time, the posts are simple to delete.

ENGAGEMENT/ACQUISITION Press research

§  Find articles written about your industry.

§  Figure out writers and publications interested in your sector

§  Set up Google alerts §  Who is your audience?

ENGAGEMENT/ACQUISITION Press outreach

§  Prior to launch, build and pitch content that is: §  Educational §  Funny §  Personal

§  Take a look at the specific publications, and tailor your content to fit their style. Ex. “Top 10 List…”

§  At launch time, put together a press release focused on: §  Your Product §  Founder Stories §  Why you’re different

§  Keep it simple. Begin your pitch with a short intro that explains what your pitch is about. Don’t mention every single thing about your product.

ACQUISITION SEO – search engine optimization

§  70% of the links clicked on Google are organic (not paid)

§  To rank website importance, Google and other search engines look for: §  Backlinks – How many

websites have URLs linking to your website

§  Keywords – If someone is searching for chocolate donuts, Google will show sites that discuss chocolate donuts

§  This is why it’s important to get blogs and media outlets linking to your site

PAID ACQUISITION SEM

Purchasing Sponsored Listings on search engines, usually Google.

Display ads Clickable “Banners” that show next to content on websites

Social ads Ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Retargeting Showing display or social ads only to people that have visited your website

Native advertising Paying to have an article written by a major news outlet

TRADITIONAL PAID ACQUISITION SEM

Display ads

SOCIAL ADS facebook linkedin twitter

NEWER PAID ACQUISITION Retargeting Native advertising

ACTIVATION Customer research

We invest heavily in customer ratings and reviews because they are used by up to 80% of shoppers to guide purchases. Global Director, 3M

The shopping trip now begins long before the shopper enters the store, so store-focused marketers have to move their efforts forward. CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi

ACTIVATION website

§  Even if you have an offline product or local business, people will look online to learn about you.

§  When building your company’s website, it’s important to include: §  Explain “Why should people love or trust you?” §  A place for people to enter their email addresses §  Positive testimonials §  Links to your social media site §  Relevant product or brand images §  A clear explanation of how to access or purchase your product (CTA)

ACTIVATION a/b testing

§  It’s important to test the elements of your website, emails, and ads.

§  Test one thing at a time to make the results easier to read.

§  All tests should be “actionable” = results can be used in future rollouts

a b

§  Copy §  Length §  Layout §  Call-to-action §  Product explanation §  Color §  Price §  Featured Product

Examples of elements to test

ACTIVATION a b

ACTIVATION a b

Version  B,  the  category-­‐centric  layout  increased  total  clicks  by  14.93%  and  product  page  views  by  5.72%  both  at  a  99.9%  confidence  level.  

bad

RETENTION Email marketing

§  Recipients have low patience §  Get to the point fast §  Focus on only 1 or 2 subjects §  Use an equal amount of image and text §  Avoid writing long paragraphs. Try bullet

points and images.

§  Only send emails to people who have signed up for them

good

RETENTION SEGMENTING Cross-sell lifestage

RETENTION SEGMENTING Re-engagement welcome

TOOLS Search marketing

blogging

Website builders

Slides from 2-hour long Email Marketing 101 class: http://www.slideshare.net/AnishShah/email-marketing-101-30405023

§  Google Trends §  Google Keyword Planner

§  Medium.com §  Wordpress §  Tumblr

§  Squarespace §  Wix §  Weebly

Email marketing

§  Mailchimp §  Vertical Response §  Customer.io

Analytics & a/b testing

§  Google Analytics §  Optimizely §  KISSMetrics

Social media management

§  Hootsuite §  Buffer §  Hubspot

Press

§  PR Newswire §  Technorati

Good marketing blogs

§  Hubspot §  SEOmoz §  Mailchimp

Paid acquisition

§  Retargeter §  Google Ad Builder §  AdStage

THANK YOU.

NOW GO OUT AND DOMINATE.