lean marketing
DESCRIPTION
I've been thinking a lot recently about how we apply 'The Lean Startup' principles to marketing projects. We find success in tight feedback loops - where we get feedback on content or marketing tactics and then improve through iteration. This presentation shares some of the tools, tactics and approaches that have been used on successful campaigns.TRANSCRIPT
Lean Marketing
Rob Ousbey – Distilled
@RobOusbey
Agile Principles
Agile Marketing Whiteboard Friday with @jcolmanhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/agile-marketing-whiteboard-friday
Excellent 6 minute video showing how to apply the Agile principles to marketing teams.
Iterativefeedback
loopswill have a bigger impact than
PREDETERMINED PLANS
Image – and applications of the Lean Startup principles to non-profits – at:www.leanimpact.org/the-minimum-viable-campaign-getting-to-engagement-quicker/
But don’t consider this as just a loop to keep going around, it’s also principle: always think about whether you’ve validated enough to move on.
Early iterations will be fast, tight & numerous.
Ideas In
Build
Measure & LearnValidating marketing is hard, but incredibly effective. These tactics can help small companies and start-ups outplay the ‘big boys’, but smart teams inside big companies can do it too!
IDEAS INYou can collect ton of ideas when you’re lean. It’s like one massive brainstorm, where volume at the top is fine.
BRAINSTORMS
Come prepared
Give your brainstorm attendees all the necessary information in advance and make them come along with a bunch of ideas.
Read more: http://dis.tl/YXnnKS
Every story at The Onion begins with headlines. The writers begin brainstorms by writing hundreds of headlines, the whittling them down to the best few. Only then do they write articles.
Iteration
A great technique to develop ideas.
Ideas Machine
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
The ‘Ideas Machine’ was built in minutes using Google Forms and had a $300 budget – every submitted idea got a coffee reward. Starbucks B2B cards can be recharged remotely: www.starbuckscardb2b.com
Private Trello
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
A Kanban board that works great for managing the marketing process, but also great for capturing ideas from the team.
Public Trello
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
We list our content plans publicly on Trello. Customers can add their suggestions and vote on the content they’d like to see.
BUILD
Wireframes
Wireframing is also an appropriate technique for content planning.It’s useful internally or to share with experts for feedback and buy-in.
POP
BalsamiqTwo tools I’ve been using recently.
Launchrock
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
Launchrock is an incredible tool for marketers. Read about how this page allowed us to launch Distilled U in one day – for free – and got a 43% conversion rate: http://dis.tl/wZHIwh
Ship Day
Not a hack day where you get started on something. Focus on having something finished and shipped in 8 hours. Collaboration
under these circumstances can give tight feedback loops.
Ship Day
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
One thing we delivered on a ship-day was 50 short videos, generating thousands of views.
www.youtube.com/user/DistilledSEO
Build ‘Part 1’
Don’t create all the content immediately; launch something something as an MVP and collect feedback.
Create a Series
The first part worked out, so let’s pretend we always intended to run a long series.
Build ‘Part 1’
Classic ad, obviously.
Create a Series
When it became clear how successful the campaign was, they were ready to jump on a follow up.
Your Team
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
Make sure your team is ready to iterate fast – including both getting the feedback and responding to that.
Other ToolsSome other tools that help me create MVPs quickly.
Measure & Learn
The whole purpose is to validate as you go.
Example: AppSumo
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
20% of AppSumo’s time is spent testing. 14% of tests give ROI – these get unlimited budget.
Big tests are necessary to big learnings, and can bring big returns.
What are we measuring?
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
Sales conversions
Lead generation
Social visibility
Engaged visits
If you track/monitor/optimize for engagement then you focus on earning attention, rather than just the underlying numbers.
Will Critchlow created a GA custom report to help track engaged visits.
Zynga’s Testing
Begin testing content, concepts, UX ideas, etc with your existing audience – they’re predisposed to be supportive of you trying things.
Zynga’s ghetto testing process: create a short pitch, post it on the site for 5 minutes and monitor how many people click it. http://dis.tl/11dr4J0
Audience Feedback
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
Mass-marketing paperback publishers will ask audience members to give direct feedback on content before it’s released.
Audience Feedback
@RobOusbeyRob Ousbey
Starbucks Test
Solicit feedback from people in public places; offer to buy them a coffee / beer in return for 5-10 minutes of their time. For example: http://dis.tl/197Y8tz
Paid Sources
Even those marketers who don’t deal with paid traffic sources in general should look at paying for small numbers
of visitors to new content in order to test it quickly.
Paid Sources
Tim Ferris bought Google Ads to test different titles for his book: http://dis.tl/11dtUNW
Test content ideas or pitches by including them in your emails: newsletters, alerts, updates & lifecycle emails.
Pre Outreach
Before you send in the Outreach Army….
Pre Outreach
… go an do reconnaissance on your ideas & approach.
Typical Outreach Process
Research Content
PublishContent
CreateContent
Push on social networks
Promote to appropriate sites
Pre-Outreach Feedback Loop
Research Content
PublishContent
CreateContent
Talk to those sites again
Promote on social
Talk to relevant sites & individuals
Pre-Outreach Feedback Loop
Talk to relevant sites & individuals
Ask these people to:
give their feedback on content / draft“what do you think of this?”
give their feedback on the idea / concept“would you be interested in this?”
suggest resources or data“what should we include?”
Pre-Outreach Feedback Loop
Use the phone for lots of this. It’s way faster and you might just make some great relationships this way.
Co-learning
Learnings from one test – such as email a/b tests on subject lines – can be used elsewhere, such as in your Tweets.
Thank you!
ROB OUSBEY
COO, DISTILLED
@ROBOUSBEY
CC Photo Credits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/3307873748/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la-citta-vita/5852209501/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12426416@N00/518821732/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12426416@N00/385846462/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barteko/6127853053/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77725780@N00/4835354126/