distribution hacks: 5 simple steps to get in front of your ideal customer
TRANSCRIPT
Lincoln Murphy
Distribution Hacks 5 Simple Steps to Get In Front of Your Ideal Customer
Dan McGaw - KISSmetrics - @danielmcgaw !Dan is the Director of Marketing at KISSmetrics, where he get’s the opportunity to help the best marketers in the world measure their marketing and business efforts. Prior to KISSmetrics, Dan was VP of growth at Code School, where he helped the company grow to over 500k users and $400k+ in monthly revenue.
Lincoln Murphy - Sixteen Ventures - @lincolnmurphy !Over the past 7 years, Lincoln Murphy, Managing Director of Sixteen Ventures, has helped 300+ SaaS companies - as well as thousands more through his writing, workshops, and speaking - accelerate their growth by optimizing the Customer Lifecycle, from customer acquisition to retention. He’s been featured in Fast Company, Inc., VentureBeat, and GrowthHacker.tv.
@lincolnmurphy #distrohacks
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1 Se"ing the stage
Define
Find
Compel
Convert
2 Ideal Customer
3 Q&A
Table of Contents
2 Distribution
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Se"ing the Stage 3 Types of Marketing,
a brief History Lesson, and Tactics!
Three Main Marketing Types We’re focused on #3 today…
1. Concept / Idea Elevation
• Broad / Market Making
• Success = ???
2. Brand Positioning
• brand associated with concept
• success is hard to measure
3. Direct Response
• Product in Front of Ideal Customers
• Success = They Take Appropriate Action (sign-up, purchase, trial, etc.)
Product Price
Promotion Place
Evolution of the Traditional Marketing Mix
Product Price
Promotion + Place
Product Price
Distribution
Se"ing the Stage
Distribution Ge!ing your product in front of your customer. Period.
I’ve got a Dirty Li!le Secret Stick around… I’ll share it at the end
Tactics of Distribution Including, but not limited to.
• Partnerships
• Intermediaries (VARs/Distributors/Affiliates)
• Joint Ventures (co-marketing, offers, etc.)
• Integrations
Tactics of Distribution Including, but not limited to.
• Advertising
• PPC/CPM
• Display Networks
• Content Amplification
• Billboards on the 101
Tactics of Distribution Including, but not limited to.
Content
• Blogs
• News
• Webinars (SPOILER ALERT!)
• Whitepapers
• Books (e or otherwise)
• Data
• Apps
• Community
Tactics of Distribution Including, but not limited to.
• Outreach
• Cold Emails
• Cold Calling
• Direct Postal Mail
Tactics of Distribution Including, but not limited to.
• Virality
• Use-based (communication, social networks, etc.)
• Invitation-based
• Referrals (incentivized invitations)
• Powered By / Widgets
Don’t START with Tactics. That’s where most people go wrong.
Start with your Customer!
Distribution Do this first.
Why Focus on an Ideal Customer?
• FOMO is telling you NOT to do this.
• You must know your Ideal Customer Be"er than they Know Themselves
Why Focus on an Ideal Customer?
• “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937)
• Compelling > Convincing
• People don’t buy from you because they understand what it is you do… but because you understand what they do!
!
Ideal Customer Define ➔Find ➔ Compel ➔ Convert
Ideal Customer Define
Ideal Customer is Situational
• There is no Universal definition of Ideal Customer
• This is a living, breathing “definition”… you’ll come back to it o$en
• It is specific to:
• Your Situation
• Your company / product / offer / campaign
Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Define the Situation
• Is this for your product, an offer, your business, a new market?
• Define the Time Frame
• 1, 3, 6 months?
• Be Specific
Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Know where you are today in the context of this situation
• How do you know?
• What metric(s) are you measuring?
Ideal Customer - Situational Definition
• Know Where you’re Going (Situational Objective)
• How will you know if you’re successful then?
• How will you know if you’re on the right track along the way?
• Land Grab, User #, Revenue Goal, etc.
• You may want to have an idea about what you’re willing to spend to achieve the incremental bump in that metric (CAC, for example).
Ideal Customer Profile Inputs
• Ready
• Willing
• Able
• + Profitable
• + Expansion Potential
• + Virality
Ideal Customer Profile Key Inputs
Ready
• They have a problem they need solved / opportunity to take advantage of
• They know they have the problem / opportunity
• The problem / opportunity is acute … there’s a sense of urgency you can take advantage of
Willing
• They’re ready to solve that problem by taking action
• They’re exploring options to solve that problem
• There’s a Catalyst: M&A, Investments, Bankruptcy, hiring/firing, RFP, etc.
Ideal Customer Profile Key Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
Able
• They have the means to solve the problem
• They have the authority to solve the problem
Ideal Customer Profile Key Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
Profitable
• This means it’s cost-effective to get in front of them
• On-Boarding & Support
• Estimated Lifetime
• Buying Cycle / Process
Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs
Expansion Potential
• Up-Sell / Cross-Sell
• Potential / Front-load
• Immediate ASP Boost
• A high CHI/NPS is critical here
Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs
Ideal Customer - Define
Virality
• $1 CAC / 2 = $0.50
• Intra & Inter-Company
• WOM vs. Use-Based Virality
• Of course, ensuring they’re happy is key
• Network Effect = Built-in Social Proof
• Enterprise Dept vs. SME, Agency vs. Enterprise, etc.
Ideal Customer Profile Secondary Inputs
Would Your Ideal Customer:
• Know they’re your ideal customer if they looked at your site?
• Feel comfortable using your product or service?
• Feel like your service was designed for them?
• Tell their friends or co-workers about your product?
Ideal Customer Profile Sanity Check #1
Who’s your Less-Than-Ideal Customer?
• Would they think they’re your ideal customer?
• Make sure you’re not going where they are!
• Then make sure you’re not actively a"racting them
Ideal Customer - Define
Ideal Customer Profile Sanity Check #2
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Ideal Customer Find
• Don’t think like your customer… think about your customer
• Know…
• how your customers try and buy products in your category
• where they look for information
• who they trust
• how they consume marketing
Ideal Customer Characteristics
• Customer development
• Primary market research (stuff you do yourself)
• Secondary market research (stuff other people have done that you get access to)
Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
Talk to your Customers & Prospects
• Current Customers
• Past (Cancelled) Customers
• Prospects that didn’t convert from your Free Trial
• Those in your nurturing/indoctrination process
• Don’t talk to Prospects about this (yet)… focus on converting them
Ideal Customer Discovery Methods
Not all Competitors are the same
• Critical they share the same customers
• Same Product Category
• Immediately Adjacent to your Product category
• Same price/complexity level (or at least the same customers)
Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
How to Find your Competitors’ Customers
• They’re named in testimonials and case studies on the competitor site
• They mentioned the app in their LinkedIn profile
• They ‘re a member of an app-specific group on LinkedIn
• They have a certification from the vendor
• Alexa…
Talk to Your Competitors’ Customers
Ask the Customers of your Competitors:
• about other competitors they may have evaluated (and why they chose the one they did)
• who else they trust in the industry, (consultants, advisors, analysts, etc.)
• what blogs they read, if they watch videos, etc.
• did they buy direct or through a distributor/VAR/app store
Your Competitors’ Ideal Customer
Digging for Gold…
• You’ll learn about analysts, consultants, and associations from whom you can buy secondary research. Protip: you can also use them for primary research
• Look for associations your ideal customers belong to – both industry-specific and wider-scope associations – and events (local or national) they a"end.
• Glean information from the event marketing sites… or actually a"end the event, too.
Infiltrate their Ecosystem
Look for Pa!erns
• In bad-guy hacking, this is called the "Watering hole” a"ack… go where they are and where they’re most likely to let their guard down because of an implied trust
• If everyone I talk to says they read XYZ’s blog or buys research from ABC Firm, then I probably need to figure out a way to piggyback on those folks somehow to get in front of my ideal customer.
Social Engineering
Look for Pa!erns
• Do they read this magazine, or listen to that podcast? Do they go to this event or trust that consultant? Are there ways to use that knowledge to get in front of my Ideal Customer? Ads, Guest Blog Posts, Distribution Deals, Email Drops…
• Does it seem like most buy through intermediaries such as VARs or Distributors? Do they seem to use corporate app stores? How can I get my app listed in those corporate stores or be included in distribution deals with VARs?
Listen first… act second.
• The pa"erns will start to give you insights into how to get in front of your audience or what distribution channels you’ll use
• While sometimes the medium is the message, at the very least it will dictate what the message looks like, what it says, what the CTA is, etc.
• So there is no “best” distribution channel for all SaaS apps… there are only “best” distribution channels for each Ideal Customer type.
Look for Pa!erns
Ideal Customer Compel
Speak directly to your Ideal Customer
• “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” - Robert Collier (c. 1937)
• Having an Ideal Customer in mind will dictate:
• the language, images, copy, and design you use
• the emotion you invoke or tap into
• the sense of urgency you can take advantage of or produce
How to Cut Through the Noise
Based on the channel, the IC, the situation, offer, etc.
• Timely (Example: event planning SaaS)
• Congruent w/ catalyst
• Doesn’t have to conform to “rules” (except those of the network/partner)
• How can we evoke an emotional response, even in a B2B se"ing, that’s congruent with the context we’re working within?
• This gets their a"ention and Compels them to Action
Medium is the Message
Ideal Customer Convert
And once hooked, the secret to ge!ing them to take action
• Continue the narrative from first touch to conversion
• Different engagement methods for different cohorts (source a"ribution)
• Know what steps need to be taken to move them to conversion and orchestrate the process… don’t leave it up to chance
• Ask for the sale; make them an offer!
Conversion Rate Optimization
Ideal Customer Define ➔Find ➔ Compel ➔ Convert
1. Define your Ideal Customer
2. Understand the conversation already taking place in their mind
3. Figure Out the Best Way to Get In Front of Them (channel)
4. Decide on the “hook” that injects you into that conversation and get’s them to take action (tactic)
5. Continue the narrative through conversion (funnel)
Distribution Hacks - Review
When you do what we covered today:
• You don’t have to test as much
• Testing really is only for optimization
• Trial and Error goes away
• Even “ugly” designs and bad copy (relatively speaking) can work when highly-targeted
The Dirty Li!le Secret
Questions?
Lincoln Murphy Managing Director
Sixteen Venture @lincolnmurphy
Dan McGaw Director of Marketing
KISSmetrics @danielmcgaw
More resources at: h!p://sixteenventures.com/kissmetrics
THANK YOU