Basics of Entrepreneurial Marketing

Entrepreneurial Marketing

featuring: James Weiss Founder, JBW Advisory & Former Senior Manager at

Hosted by: Expert Advice On Demand. .com/webinars

Hosted by: Caitlin Quan Evisors Marketing & Operations Associate

Agenda

1.  About James 2.  Tactics vs. Strategy and the money myth 3.  Product - market fit, pain, and virality 4.  A few resources to help 5.  Q&A


About James

“Entrepreneur and Reformed Consultant”

•  Have built three businesses, currently building 2 more

•  In 2010 started JBW Advisory, helping early-stage companies in media and consumer products / retail

•  >6 years post MBA at Bain NYC, Singapore, HK

•  Princeton AB, Wharton MBA

•  Started career at DreamWorks in LA as a driver to composer Hans Zimmer


Why are you here?


•  You’ve launched an entrepreneurial venture and you’re looking for customers

•  You’re preparing to launch and you’re thinking about your marketing strategy

•  You’re currently a marketer and are interested in how things are different on the other side

Tactics vs. Strategy


Strategy = what’s the plan to build this business

Tactics = how many twitter posts do we need today

Tactics flow from strategy

The myth


Successful marke-ng!

Money doesn’t solve the problem


$41MM $340MM

$45MM $135MM

Source: h4p://techli.com/2012/04/10-‐greatest-‐startup-‐failures/

The real challenges


Product Market Fit

Does my product solve a problem?

Story How do I get people to want to buy my product?

Virality How do I get people to tell their friends about my product?

Product Market Fit – it’s easy!


Perhaps not so easy



“A lot of -mes, people don't know what they want un8l you show it to them.” -‐-‐Steve Jobs


prod-‐uhkt mahr-‐kit -‐

The thing you do that solves someone’s problem be>er (cheaper, easier, faster) than others

The person(s) willing to invest (with money, -me, risk of failure) for that thing you do

How important is this?


“Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriBng your product,

moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don’t want to, telling customers yes when you don’t

want to.” – Marc Andreesen

You can’t market something that people don’t want so much that they’re willing to break current

habits to switch to yours.

You need to listen carefully


Lots of ways to talk to customers

•  Surveys

•  Google analytics

•  Focus groups

•  Interviews

•  Usability testing

•  Yahoo! Answers

•  Facebook

Product-Market fit


Lots of ways to talk to customers

•  Surveys

•  Google analytics

•  Focus groups

•  Interviews

•  Usability testing

•  Yahoo! Answers

•  Facebook

1.  Who are the true customers

2.  What is their true need

3.   How will you meet that need

4.   How much pain is required to switch

Driving Awareness

Marketing




Source: h4p://www.confusedma4hew.com

Entrepreneurs need to educate to get consideration


Source: h4p://www.adamhcohen.com


1.  A fashion brand

2.  Offering value and service

3. With a social mission

The Story

There are innumerable tactics to build awareness


Source: h4p://bit.ly/XnJGce


Before you start thinking tactics…


What’s your story? •  Why are you in business?

•  What do you believe?

•  What is your value proposition?

•  Why is this meaningful to you?

If you can’t tell this story, how will other people tell it for you?

Virality: The marketing holy grail


Source: h4p://blog.amplifinity.com

What’s “virality” all about?


Virality is:

1.  Creating customer experiences delightful enough that people want to tell their friends

2.  Making it easy for customers to do so

Virality isn’t new!


Customer references

Word of mouth

Reviews

Sharing

Sharing existed long before Facebook


Source: h4p://dailymail.co.uk

Sharing existed long before Facebook


Source: h4p://cocainehelp.promisblogs.com

virality in 3 easy steps®


1.  Get your brand into people’s hands

2.  Make sure they love it

3.  Give them super-easy ways to share (bribes don’t hurt either)


To sample or not to sample?


a)  cost of a sample vs. customer lifetime value

b)  how much pain and risk are required to try and share

Product love: NPS


Source: h4p://propertycasualty360.com; Bain & Company

Sharing in the internet age




•  Built the plaYorm for $300,000

•  Spent nothing on adver-sing

•  Within 18 months had ~20% of internet users



Get your free, private e-‐mail @

h4p://www.hotmail.com

PS… the story hasn’t changed


Selfish Plug: MackWeldon


Selfish Plug: MackWeldon


Closing thoughts


Good strategy trumps money and tac8cs any day of the week.

•  Build a product that people really need and want (so you’ll have “pull”), and figure out who those people are

•  Tell the story as simply as possible (so you can adver-se, publicize, etc. effec-vely)

•  Figure out the obstacles to trial and build around them -‐ remember you’re trying to make a market that didn’t exist, so you must eliminate fric-on)

•  Delight customers, encourage sharing, but remember pain!

•  Buy MackWeldon! Contact me for an F&F code J

A few resources


•  h4p://blog.kissmetrics.com/ul-mate-‐guide-‐startup-‐marke-ng/

•  h4p://marke-ngbeforefunding.com

•  h4p://onforb.es/14PMZui

•  h4p://www.slideshare.net/seanomalley/startup-‐marke-ng-‐presenta-on

•  h4p://www.unbound.com

•  h4p://www.startup-‐marke-ng.com/the-‐startup-‐pyramid/

•  h4p://www.growhack.com

•  h4p://wp.me/p1FaB8-‐1JXd

Connect


Book your one-on-one session with James at www.evisors.com/expert/689

James Weiss Founder, JBW Advisory

He can help you with: •  Career Assessment

•  Consulting Interview Practice •  Resume Development

…and more!

Questions & Answers


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Basics of Entrepreneurial Marketing