By Julien Barbier, Sr Dir of Growth, Marketing & Community at Docker – 12/11/2014 – a 42min presentation at school 42

MARKETING for HACKERS

About me

• Julien Barbier

• 2004-2008: Software engineer (Epitech 2006) & Product Manager (Paris, France)

• 2008-2012: Entrepreneur (Paris, France & Miami, FL)

• Oct 2012-now: co-Founder of #while42 (International French Tech Engineers Network, 1500+ members in 30+ chapters around the World)

• Oct 2012-now: Sr Director of Growth, Marketing & Community at Docker (ex-dotCloud, San Francisco, CA)

• Contact me: julien@docker | @julienbarbier42

Why this presentation?

• You have put together a great team• You have a great idea• You worked hard for months• You just released your product• It is a great product

And then…

NOTHING HAPPENS

Welcome to the real world!

I don’t have any money

You are lucky!

Stop finding excuses. Use your brain instead of your money

Hotmail – PS: I love you

• Launch in July 1996

• Marketing = buy billboards and radio ads

• PS: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail -> $0

• 18 months later, Hotmail had 12M+ users and got acquired by MSFT

FIRST: Track and monitor EVERYTHING

• Track and measure EVERYTHING• If it is useless now, it WILL be useful later

• Integrate tracking and metrics EVERYWHERE

• Should be part of your product release cycles

• Should be part of every offline & online marketing campaign

• Measure the impact of every change, update, new feature, campaign, tweet, meetup, event, press release…

• Be DATA DRIVEN!

•ROI

•Measure Return on Investment all the time!

Marketing starts before you launch

• Pitch your idea to as many people as possible•NO, they will not steal your idea•YES, marketing and com starts before you launch

•Do the same with the product

This will help you create the right story for your usersThis will train you to pitch users, reporters, VCs, etc…

If you wait the launch day to create your story, you are already dead.

Create the press release, the final doc, and final story BEFORE you start coding

About the stories (yes, plural)

• A story / product is NOT a list of bullet points

• You need a story for different types of ppl•If you don’t have a story for your grandmother, you are not there yet

•You need different story length for different situation•Less than one minute

• This one is the most important•5 minutes•42 min

•You need written stories too•different length and format•one sentence•one paragraph•one page•one power point•one pdf•...

Now get out!

• Talk to people face to face - IRL is GOOD!

•Go to meetups•Try to get a lightning talk!•Hijack competitors’ meetups•When you are “big” enough do your own meetup

•Attend conferences and events•Try to speak there!•It creates content before, during and after the event

•Reach out personally to early adopters•Do NOT automate this!•Offer them a coffee•Say thank you, they take a risk•Ask them for advice

ABC!

• Pitch your product ALL the time• to EVERYBODY

•with the right story, right length and right format

• Someone says he will try it?•give him your phone so he does it NOW

•Someone is already using it?•Ask for advice•Pitch him your next feature

•Pitbull mode!

Identify the right target

• Who are they?• Where are they?• What do they need?• Who are the people they follow and like the most?• What do they read?• What do they eat?• How do they speak?• What tools do they use?• What are their problems?

You need to know everything about them

It does not matter what you think

• You are only one of many potential users• You don’t have all the answers

•Be data driven• You DO NOT know what the best product is - THEY know

• Use surveys• Talk to users and companies• Meet them over coffee• etc...

About your website

• People should understand RIGHT AWAY•One sentence!•What is your product about•What is their next call to action

• Don’t trade clear messaging for design• Main CTA, should be on the homepage• Nothing should be more than 3 clicks away from the homepage• Forms (signing up and co)

•Don’t forget that them more field the lower conversion rate will get•So make sure every field is really required for you

•The faster the website, the better•Think about every type of ppl

•First time visitor•Regular user•Businesses•Journalists•...

CTA All the Time!

• Always have a clear call to action / next step

• Homepage•Main CTA should align with the main goal of your homepage•Do NOT have 10 main CTAs!

• Meetings: what and WHEN should we meet again•What / who / when is the next step

•Meetups•Follow up with emails with links to info, signup page, more docs…

•Blog post•End of the article, now what? What should they do now?

•Documentation•End of a page: What should you read now?

Identify your funnel - and then optimize

• Acquisition

• Getting visitors to your website

• Getting the product in front of the users

• Activation

• Signing up

• Make users actually use your product for the first time

• Retention

• Make users use your product more

• More often

• Revenue

• Monetize users or visitors

• Referral

• Getting people (in any of the above steps) to refer others

Build your community right away

Community is the new marketingLower budget, Higher conversion rate vs traditional marketing

Your product/brand is not what you say it is.

It is what THEY say it is.

Community, TL;DR;

•Community is like a networkA community/network is as strong as the number of links between its membersIRL links are more precious than Online links

•You do NOT own or control the communityIt is NOT your community: you are part of it, you can influence it, but you do not own itIt is not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community

•Your product/brand is not what you say it is. It is what THEY say it is.•Lower budget, Higher conversion rate vs traditional marketing•Communities everywhere!•At the end of the day everything is always about people

Learn more about Community here: http://www.slideshare.net/julienbarbier42/community-at-docker

The Online Social Network Strategy

Be everywhere!

Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Slideshare, Youtube, GitHub, Stack Overflow…

But do know where to put more efforts when you do not have enough time (track & measure!)

Use the specificity of each social network

Different users, different features, different post previews, etc…

Do NOT use auto-post tools!

Join the conversation as soon as possible

Your product is not what you say it is. It is what THEY say it is -> you want to be part of this

conversation!

Identify leaders / influencers on each social media

Twitter tips of the day

Include authors & companies handles in your tweets

It is ok to post several times for important news

Which twitter account should I use?

Always optimize reach

•Include Photos / pictures in your articles•Or even better: Use Open Graph or equivalent (ogp.me)•-> More reach! (min 30% more clicks when you have a picture)

The SERP strategy

• It’s all about content

• Write good content, unique & relevant• Write content your community wants to read• Target likely amplifiers!• Forget about your SEO magic tricks• Encourage your community to build content

•Say thank you, repost, post, upvote, RT, include them in your newsletter, itw them, …

Google search auto complete

•This is what your community is looking for•Free tool!•Automate: http://keywordtool.io/

BuzzSumo

•Find out what did buzz

Press

•You should have a page on your website with everything they need•logo, story about the company, about the team, etc…

•Build a list of journalist who would likely cover your news•Look for articles about your industry / competitors for instance

•Build relationship with press right away•Every reporter have a different agenda and target

•Journalists are very busy ppl, they will not always answer•It does not matter. Don’t harass them, but do send them the next news

•Press release•Try to get quotes from users / partners•Pre-brief journalists BEFORE the news is out•Embargo rules •Timing is important

Dealing with haters and communication crisis

•First, do nothing until you are calm•One tweet can fireback in a VERY bad way•Always stay positive

•Do NOT hate back•Say thank you to haters and competitors

•After all, they give you advice for free, and they talk about your product :)

•Haters usually need love and attention

•Converted haters will be your best friends

Do disruptive Marketing

• Boring marketing is a waste of time and money

I don’t understand anything you just said

•Use your network and find ppl to help you•Recruit a non-technical co-founder•Go to an accelerator / incubator•Find the right advisors to complete your dream-team

Thank you!

• Any questions?

• Ping me to chat more about Marketing:

• write0@gmail.com

• @julienbarbier42