Smarketing How to Market your startup on a Shoestring
May 31, 2015
Smarketing
How to Market your startup on a Shoestring
Agenda
• Entering the market on a shoestring• The problem with sales• The problem with marketing• Smarketing: for “fast start” market entry• Components of smarketing• Case Study
About me• Provide content marketing services to
technology and other companies• Sales Exec. Almost 20 years• Start-ups, Vignette Corp, Pervasive
Software, Video Equipment• Re-invited myself 3 years ago: from
salesguy to content marketer
Entering the Market on a shoestring
• U.S. Software Mkt Largest in the world– 2008 Global SW Market: $303.8 Billion– U.S.: 42.6 % of this (Wikipedia)
• Most start-ups are risk averse• Too big• Hyper-competitive• Complicated
The problem with sales
The problem with sales• Cold-calling doesn’t work anymore• Leads that come in from marketing suck• Hard to establish trust/rapport• Sales methods in use today are out of
touch• Everybody knows everything• Sales people are “weak”
The problem with marketing: It takes too long!
Source: Hubspot
What is Smarketing?
• “Smarketing is the new one-person marketing/sales/web 2.0 hybrid: sales people acting like marketers; marketers acting like sales people, using content and sales 2.0 tools to generate leads”
What is Smarketing?
• Use of compelling, relevant content to serve as absentee sales people
• Implemented by sales people or marketing people
• Requires sales 2.0 mind-set• Also requires Sales 1.0 mind-set
How sales and marketing are similar
Sales Marketing
Opening Pitch Catchy Title
Empathy with customer Knowing your audience
Dig for pain Presentation of problem
Present a solution Show benefit
Explain how it works Proof points
Ask for the order Call to action
The real purpose of marketing
“The object of advertising is to sell goods. It has no other justification worth mentioning.”
Raymond Rubicam, Young & RubicamExcerpt from “The Copywriter’s Handbook,” Bob Bly
That’s kind of like like sales people, right?
Smarketers are like a one-man band!
Why smarketing?
• Content fulfills prospects’ need to research
• Content can be passed around inside and outside company
• Allows “soft-sell” approach• You can target specific decision-makers• Get faster results
Components of “smarketing”1. Start blogging even before market entry
2. What do you actually sell?
3. Define target market, loosely
4. Get your website right (trash the traditional)
5. Create your buzz piece
6. Create basic Social Media presence
7. Identify your prospects via social media
8. Analyze your LinkedIn connections
9. Have something to invite people to
10. Soft email
11. Warm cold-calls
12. Innovative content tools
Start blogging before market entry
• Dharmesh Shah, CTO/Co-Founder Hubspot: http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/12875/Startup-Marketing-ABCs.aspx
“Many startups today have a blog, but most of them do not start blogging until after they have launched a product. One of the smartest things the HubSpot co-founders did was start blogging before HubSpot had a product to sell, helping to build an asset ”
I started blogging at LatinITMarketing.com 3 months before launching my services; I already had an audience
What do you actually sell?
• Interview customers:
With customer KPI Online– They thought they were seling“Business
Intelligence”
Clients said: they were looking for:–Faster reports and dashboards, not BI–Stop Wasting Time with
Spreadsheets
What do you actually sell?
• Think like Apple–Jobs: Apple does NOT do market
research–100% centered on customer-
centered innovation, but…
Think like Apple
Steve Jobs “I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.]”
Henry Ford: "If I had listened to my customers I would have invented a faster horse.“
USP
• What is your relevant differentiator?– Overt benefit + Dramatic Difference: sales– High Dramatic Diffence: 50% probability of
success according to Merwyn. Doug Hall, “Jump Start your Business Brain.”
• What if there’s NO differentiator?1. Stress an underpublicized difference
2. Dramatize a known difference differently
3. Dramatize a product name or packaging. Bob Bly, ‘The Copywriters Handbook””
Define target market, loosely
• Look at your track record so far (in your own country, in U.S.)
• Look at about 2-3 niches• Never know which one is really going to
respond
Legal Services Firm
• Food Distribution Firm• Hispanic Business
Get your website righttrash the traditional
• What will you do for me?• Who is it for?• How does it work?• Why your product/service?• What does it cost?• How can I try it?• CALL TO ACTION!• Make it like a landing page• Who’s behind it?
Create your “buzz piece”
• Foundational content• New concept• Resolve an industry problem• Bold Benefit• Non-commercial: advertising that’s too
good to throw away• eBook, White Paper, Web App, Video,
Top 10 List, Case Study
Create your “buzz piece”
InfoLink
Integrated Product Support: Your New Competitive Weapon in the High Stakes B2B Technology Marketplace
Create your “buzz piece”
IESoft
How Small Food Distributors Can Reclaim Control of their Business: the Surprising Outsourcing Solution
Create your basic social media presence
• LinkedIn Profile / LinkedIn Group?• Facebook Fan Page• Twitter Account• YouTube Channel• Don’t overdo it!
Identify your prospects via social media
• Google• LinkedIn / LinkedIn Groups• Tweepsearch• Twitter Search• Google Alerts• Jigsaw
Analyze your LinkedIn Connections
• List your LinkedIn Contacts on one column
• Identify your target companies• The intersection of contacts with target
companies can show you where to focus your efforts
Have something to invite people to
• Product webinars• Guest speaker webinars• In person talks• Case study presentations
Soft Email / Cold-Call
• “Who would you recommend?” or “Permission to connect?”
• Never a direct solicitation• Short and sweet• “buzz piece” offer in signature of email• Offer to help• Offer to send valuable content/demo
Innovative Content Tools
• Tokbox or Kineticast
Not so new anymore: • Webex or Gotomeeting• Ustream• Slideshare• Etc.
Innovative content tools
Sonny Johns, Smarketing Practitioner@sonnyjohns @kashmoo
www.kashmoo.com
Case Study: My Friend Sonny Johns
Sonny Johns and Smarketing• Lean startup: no marketing staff/budget • Uses: Twitter (personal and Kashmoo),
LinkedIn, Google Alerts• Twitter: “Thank you for following me”• LinkedIn: Cruise the Groups; look for
flooring CEOs, etc. free news,• GA: “flooring retailer,” “flooring dealer,”
“flooring sales jobs”• Send intro email / cold calls• “Permission to connect” emails.
How to contact me
Fernando Labastida, Latin IT Marketing
Twitter: @flabastida
Facebook: http://facebook.com/flabastida
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/flabastida
Tel: 512-945-9273
Website: http://latinitmarketing.com
Email: [email protected]