Traction pp

BULLSEYE FRAMEWORK

• Brainstorm Traction Channels

• Prioritize channels: Inner circle (most promising), Potential (Promising techniques), Long Shot (more of a stretch)

• Test ideas in the real world to see which are worth focusing on. Are you reaching the right customers? How many customers are available through this channel?

• Focus on your most promising channels, one traction channel will be superior in terms of customer acquisition.

• If no channels are working repeat the process.

50% RULE

Every company has a product, but do they have enough

customers? In order to keep balance make traction and

product development equally important. Use the 50% rule

to make sure this happens.

• Spend 50% or your time on product development and

50% on traction.

• Focus on moving the needle for your company, focus on

effective marketing that will help you gain traction

CRITICAL PATH

• Define your critical path, make a traction goal you are

always working towards.

• “Traction trumps everything”

• Critical path is the fewest number of steps that are

absolutely necessary to reach your traction goal.

• Make a critical path for each department (engineering,

marketing, product development).

• Make sure you overcome traction channel biases, stick to

what works

VIRAL MARKETING

• Main goal is the get existing customers to refer your

product to other.

• Main tactic behind the success of startups like Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram.

• Viral loop is the most basic form: User is exposed to your

product, User tells potential users about your product,

potential users become users themselves.

• Process then repeats itself.

PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR)

• 2 types of public relations, conventional (using traditional

media sources i.e. newspapers and magazines) and

unconventional (Stunts and contests).

• Your PR can help drive traffic to sites and magazines so

you are doing them a favor.

• Reach out to blogs that are closely associated with your

industry.

• Amplify your story by sharing it on social networks and

emailing it to influencers in your industry.

• Only reach out when you have worthwhile milestones to

share.

UNCONVENTIONAL PR

• 2 types of Unconventional PR: Publicity Stunt, and

Customer Appreciation.

• Publicity stunts can bring a startup from anonymity to

national recognition.

• Viral videos are another great technique, the dollar shave

club used this technique to jump start their business.

• Some examples of customer appreciation are: gifts,

contests and giveaways, and customer appreciation.

• Often times these techniques can be low cost and very

effective.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)

• SEM is generally placing ads on Google and other search

engines, also know as pay per click (PPC)

• Used to sell directly to the companies target customers.

• SEM uses high – potential keywords and groups them

into ad groups.

• Google AdWords is the main platform for SEM due to

Google’s high traffic.

• Longer keywords can be more effective since they are

cheaper and can become more profitable.

SOCIAL AND DISPLAY ADS

• Examples of social and display ads are banner ads on

websites and social ads are promoted on your Facebook

timeline or promoted tweets in your Twitter feed.

• Most display ads are run by ad networks that sell the

space to advertisers.

• There are three approaches to display ads: Large Ad

Networks, Niche Ad Networks, and Direct ads.

• The main goal of social ads is to build an audience and

engage with that audience.

OFFLINE ADS

• Offline ads include: TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers,

Billboards, and Direct Mail.

• Offline ads are easy to test, and often times relatively

cheap.

• A few things to consider when using offline ads:

Demographics, Cost, and Tracking.

• Infomercials are another example of offline ads.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

• SEO is the process of improving your ranking in search

engines..

• It allows you to amplify all of the other things you’re

doing in your other traction channels.

• There are two SEO strategies: Fat head and Long tail.

• Fat head is trying to rank for search words that directly

relate to your company.

• Long tail is aiming to rank for more specific terms with

lower search volumes.

• Do not buy links, it can get your company penalized

heavily.

CONTENT MARKETING

• Companies with blogs that are updated often have posts

that lead to major PR.

• It can lead to large email lists that help companies stay in

constant contact with their customers.

• Blogs may not receive much traffic at first but a constant

flow of good content will lead to consistent blog growth.

• Having a content calendar is a good way to make sure

you are posting frequently and consistently.

EMAIL MARKETING

• Email marketing can be used to help promote your

company by offering: coupons, referrals, sales pitches

and more.

• It is often used as the primary traction channels for online

retailers.

• Email marketing can be used to find new customers and

to engage and retain current customers.

• A very important aspect is to have a good email copy, in

other words send attractive and easy to understand

emails.

ENGINEERING AS MARKETING

• It is one of the more under-utilized traction channels, it

involves building tools and resources related to your

product to help it reach more people.

• Examples of engineering as marketing are annual

promotions, micros-sites, and widgets.

• The goal should be to create low-friction ways to engage

potential customers and lead them to your main product.

• Keeping things as simple as possible is very important

for this method in order to get people to your website.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (BD)

• Primary focus is to exchange value through partnerships

that benefit both parties.

• Different types of partnerships: Standard, Joint Ventures,

Licensing, Distribution Deals, Supply.

• It is vital to pick the right partner in order to create a

mutually beneficial partnership.

• Most deals fail, so it is important to create a constant

pipeline of deals.

SALES

• The process of generating leads, qualifying them, and

converting them into paying customers.

• Cold calling and emailing potential customers if often

how the sales process starts.

• Design a sales funnel: Generate leads, Qualify leads,

Closing leads.

• Always keep the customers perspective when designing

your sales funnel.

EXISTING PLATFORMS

• Websites, apps, or networks with a large number of

users.

• The app store is a great example of using an existing

platform to grow your products sales, also add ons for

browsers like Firefox and Chrome.

• High ranking and featured apps are much more likely to

succeed than those that aren't featured.

• More important than anything else is to have a good

product that will get featured and move its way up the

charts.

TRADE SHOWS

• Trade shows are often exclusive to industry insiders and

meant for companies to show off their products in

person.

• The best way to pick a trade show is to visit it as a guest

and see if it would be a good fit for your company and

product line.

• It is paramount to be completely prepared for your trade

show, many people from your industry will be there and

you will want to be at your best.

• Make sure to secure a booth in a high traffic area to

maximize you time at the show, visibility is key.

OFFLINE EVENTS

• Offline events can be small gatherings or large conferences, and are great ways to get traction.

• Gives you an opportunity to engage directly with potential customers.

• Depending on your product, a small personal conference may be more effective than a large conference you attend.

• It’s important to make sure there is interest in your conference before you hold it.

• Throwing a party can also be a very effective offline event, it can become an annual social event that keeps you in contact with your target customers.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• The best way to et started in this channel is to offer free

talks to small groups of potential customers.

• Starting small is good in order to refine your speaking

skills so you get better as your company grows.

• As long as you have a good idea speaking event

coordinators will want you to speak at their events.

• Make sure your speech is practiced and you feel

comfortable, you don’t want the audience to question

your abilities.

• Tell a story on stage to engage your audience, if you lose

their interest you will lose traction immediately.

COMMUNITY BUILDING

• This traction technique involves you making connections

with your users so they help bring more users to your

product.

• You want people to talk about your product with others,

the more people talking about it the more people will hear

about it.

• The first step is to build an initial audience, this will start

the process of building your community.

• Its important to establish your mission in order to build a

community that believes in you.

• If done correctly community building can contribute to

product development and help give you a hiring pool.