Social Marketing for Startups

Leveraging Viral Marketing StrategiesJanuary 17, 2012

Agenda

• Introductions• (Viral) Marketing Defined: Lora• Sarah Hodge: $0 Marketing Game• Rob Ciampa: Video Killed the TV Star• Bill Band: Social Goes B2B• Laurel Ackerman: Sleep goes social

Marketing is Evolving

The Evolution of Marketing• Up to 1980ies: Marketing the past• 1980-1990ies: Marketing the present• 2000+: Marketing the future

Marketing the future:• Products/services are never finished• Products/services never stand alone

2000ies: What People Buy

• Promise that the brand will continue to deliver now and in the future

• Trust = the belief that a brand is capable of delivering now and in the future

The Relationship Era

I love…. 2.7 million hits in Google

3.27 million hits in Google

21,000 hits in Google

1.19 million hits in Google

7,900 hits in Googlenot….

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The new currency of commerce = trust

Building a BrandTr

ust

TransactionsSource: Imc2: Brand Sustainability Map

Building a Brand = Value Creation

Company: Left-Brained

Revenue

Profitability

Cost savings

Effective process

Marketing response rate

% of gross margin

Customer sat. scores

Source: Paul Greenberg @pgreenbe, CRM at the Speed of Light

Customer: Right-Brained

Validation

Coolness

Reputation

Empowerment

Accomplishment

Community

Justice/ Fairness

New Business Model = Customer Love• Deliver WOW through service• Embrace and drive change• Create fun and a little weirdness• Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded• Pursue growth and learning• Build honest and open relationships with communication• Build a positive team and family spirit• Do more with less• Be passionate and determined• Be humble

“Startups fail because the dog won’t eat the dogfood.”

Jeff SchwartzBain Capital Ventures

August, 2006

Source: Mike Troiano @MikeTrap, Holland Mark

Why Startups Fail

©2011 HOLLAND-MARK. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

“Lean Startup” Philosophy

• Most startups fail because they waste $$ building and marketing a product that not enough people want

• Instead, actively test customer needs and formulate hypotheses about business model• Then launch early with a minimum viable product (MVP),

i.e., smallest feature set needed to test a hypothesis• “It’s not a test if you can’t fail”

• Pivot when a hypothesis is disconfirmed• i.e., revise hypothesis then rapidly test it with another MVP

• Repeat process until hypotheses are fully validated and you have product-market fit

• Don’t test revenue models or scale aggressively until you have product-market fit

Examples

• Used a video of a non-existent product to gather feedback

• Formulated hypotheses about features and tested them rapidly

• Changed marketing approach and feature set when hypotheses were disconfirmed by market feedback

• Started as a platform for gathering support using “tipping points”

• Customers told them that the idea was too abstract and unfocused

• The company almost ran out of money

• Found that only one aspect was working, group deals

Examples

Payment system for PDAs

Massively multi-player game

Video-dating site

Automated email recommendation service

Podcasting (as Odeo)

Defensible Position

To define the defensible place for your company:• What are your competitive advantages?• What existing set of solutions/ways of doing

things will you be replacing?• Where can you bring sustainable differentiation?• Who has a stake in your success?• How can you gain access to the market?

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Viral Marketing Principles

• Product-market fit• Passionate, driven teams • Your edge = your unique shtick• Shareability = coolness, customer

empowerment, accomplishment and community

Next: Expert Insights

• Sarah Hodges/RunKeeper: using social sharing and psychological triggers to build a 7 million following

• Rob Ciampa/ Pixability: riding the video wave – from B2C to B2B, when timing is everything

• Bill Band/ Forrester: the social B2B sale• Laurel Ackerman/Zeo: on crossing the early

adopter chasm

The Experts

• Sarah Hodges, Director of Marketing, RunKeeper, @sarahhodges

• Rob Ciampa, VP of Marketing, Pixability, @robciampa

• Bill Band, Vice President, Forrester, @waband• Laurel Ackerman, VP of Marketing, Zeo,

@laurala• Lora Kratchounova, Principal, Scratch Marketing

+ Media, @scratchmm