Online Marketing for

Early-Stage Startups

Akhil Anumolu

@akhil_anumolu

About Me

• Hometown of Savannah, GA• UGA Grad – BBA MIS 2010• Symantec Wonder Workshop Symantec• Business Intelligence + Marketing + Front-End Dev• Youngest Finalist for Digital Analytics Rising Star Award

@akhil_anumolu

Where to Start?

@akhil_anumolu

Once you start: MAGIC!

@akhil_anumolu

Agenda

• Pre-Game: Planning & Beta

• Top Gear: Organic, Paid Media, Analytics

• Lights, Camera, Transaction: Organic vs Paid

• AMA: Marketing, Working, Life, etc.

@akhil_anumolu

Pre-Game: Planning & Beta

@akhil_anumolu

n00b marketing plan

1. Build a product

2. PR the heck out of it

3. Wait on users

4. Start buying users

5. Bang your head on a wall

@akhil_anumolu

Pre Game: Where are you going?

1. Who is our market?– Are you sure?

2. How big is this market?

3. Who are the competitors in the space?

4. Is there a geographic bias?

5. What resources do we have?– Content

– Budget

– Value Proposition of Minimum Viable Product

@akhil_anumolu

Beta It, Bro

• Test and Get Feedback From:

– Family

– Friends

– Online Communities (HackerNews, Product Hunt, G+ Communities)

– Local Community (FourAthens, Classes, Other Startups)

– Influencers (bloggers, investors, local celebs)

– Be Daring: Ask a stranger

@akhil_anumolu

Beta It, Bro (cont.)

• When doing the beta, capture honest & precise feedback:

– No rating system

– Precisely what is wrong or good

• Understand if there are any reoccurring or correlating feedback

• Determine if those changes need to be made

• Beta trials are great for R&D and marketing

@akhil_anumolu

Top Gear: Tools & Sites to Start Marketing

Top Gear: The Helpful Tools – Analytics

• Analytics

– Core base of understanding:• Customers

• Page Flow

• Conversion Flow

• Demographics

• Usage

• Google Analytics

– Google Tag Manager*

• Mixpanel

• Kissmetrics

• CrazyEgg

• Facebook Insights

• Twitter Analytics

@akhil_anumolu

Top Gear: The Helpful Tools - Organic

• Organic– Easy ability to be found– Zero-to-low cost– Can be time draining:

• Setup• Update• Optimize• Multi-Platform

• Google Webmaster Tool• Bing Webmaster Tool• Structured HTML• Schema.org• Moz.com• Yslow• Yoast – Wordpress• Google Search Trends• Twitter Cards• Facebook Open Graph• Desk.com (feedback)• MailChimp

@akhil_anumolu

Top Gear: The Helpful Tools – Paid Media

• Paid Media– Most platforms now plug

and play

– Can both market and gather insights

– Can get pricey fast

– Need to keep an eye for low ROI spending

• Paid Search– Google Adwords

– Bing/Yahoo Adcenter

• Social Ads– FB/Twtr/LI Ads

• Display – Google

– Luminate

• Remarketing– Adwords

– FB Exchange (Adroll)

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction:Organic vs Paid

Marketing

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction: Organic

• Content is still king– Blogging

– Social Media

– Getting “featured”

• Content = backlinking– Still a core function of SEO

– When you backlink, the other site will probably see• Hope is to have backlinks to your site

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction: Organic (cont.)

• Social is major to organic growth– Voice of brand

– Visual lifestyle presentation

– Outreach to and from customers

– Social results now indexed

• PR is still a top initial driver– Reach out for stories

– Give exclusive content

– Can tell stories from a different angle

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction: Paid

• If Organic is discovery, Paid is AMPLIFIER– Don’t shotgun approach

• Use your analytics

• Use top engaging content

• Look towards known customer bases

• Search Engine Marketing is for “what?”– People looking for an answer

– Compelling to click message – original clickbait

– Personalization is key

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction: Paid (cont.)

• Social Media Paid Marketing is “who?”

– People not expressly looking, but:

• Ads can be highly targeted

• Ads can be visually compelling

• Direct voice to the customer: how can we help you?

• Remarketing is the “when?”

– Customers have shown interest

• Can convert them

• Bring them back to share/refer

@akhil_anumolu

Lights, Camera, Transaction: Paid (cont.)

• When doing paid, always note:– ROI – Return On Investment

– COA – Cost Of Acquisition

– CTR – Click Through Rate

– BR% - Bounce Rate Percent

– TOS - Time On Site

– Drop Off Funnel

• Paid does not equal sales– Effective paid does

• Optimize and test

@akhil_anumolu

AMA: Ask Me Anything

@akhil_anumolu