Growth Hacking and User Acquisition for Startups and Bootstrappers
20 Questions to ask yourself before you start online marketing
So, you have an early-stage startup, and you need users. A lot of users. Like yesterday. Every week I talk to founders about how they can use online marketing to get thousands of new users as quickly as possible for little to no money. The key is to use strategic marketing, testing and iteration to find a system and a message that will deliver users.
Every startup struggles to get a critical mass of users. A difficult task is made more difficult by unrealistic expectations. The tech community, for example, thinks the internet is a faucet you can turn on to effortlessly pour billions users into your website. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. There are, however, a series of steps you can take to market your startup product or service online.
User acquisition is a process. But, teams waste time trying to think of a magical unicorn marketing ploy when they should be thinking, texting, and iterating on a few thoughtful marketing ideas. Startups need a progressive plan to raise the profile of your business in the right ecosystems.
We have a mythology made up of exceptional marketing endeavors. When Yahoo first launched email, the bottom of every email had a signature with link to encourage people to sign up for the new service. DropBox used a video about its service to sign up thousands of users before the site launched. Charity Water used Instagram to build the campaign. While these stories are inspirational, they are exceptional examples of marketing. Be prepared to confront the ordinary. Don’t depend on a miracle for your company’s growth.
Growth Hacking has a basic Tool Kit
· Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
· Advertising — Facebook Ads and Google Ads
· Social Media Marketing — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr etc.
· Email marketing, newsletter, emails to the users as they engage the site
· Reddit, Stumble Upon, Digg, Quora
· Press — both national and within your sector
· In person events and Meetups (think talks and tabling)
· Traditional print collateral
· PR in national publications and blogs
· Speaking at conferences or sponsoring conferences
It’s okay. Just start with a plan for this week this month, and the next 100 days. Pick three audiences and three messages and test.
Progress through a range of tools
Think of your user acquisition plan as a collection of tools that range from Easy-and-Cheap to Hard-and-Expensive. Learn as much as you can about marketing your product in the in the Easy-and-Cheap before investing your limited time and energy in the Hard-and-Expensive categories.
You have to get the right message to the right people at the right time. Is online marketing really the right way to tap this audience?
20 questions to ask yourself before starting your online marketing campaign for user acquisition
1. Who are my users? (You can create users stories or get demographic information.)
2. What problem is my startup solving for people?
3. Where do these people go to learn about things online?
4. What are similar models to my company and how do they advertise?
5. What are my competitors doing?
6. How long is the sale cycle?
7. How many times do people need to learn about my product before converting?
8. What does the ideal customer mix look like for my company?
9. How many customers do I need to acquire in a year, quarter, month, day?
10. What is my cost per customer acquisition?
11. What is my marketing budget?
12. Why do people really buy this? Have we surveyed or received customer feedback?
13. What are the profiles of my customers? Not my future customers, but the ones that I have right now?
14. Do I have a product or service where I need to balance supply and demand?
15. Am I “selling” both B2B and B2C customers? Do I need to sign up service providers as well as end users? (Because these need totally separate marketing campaigns.)
16. Is it clear how my product works or do I need to educate users? Do I need to find the coveted early adopters?
17. What am I asking people to do on my website? Just click on something? Buy something? Fill out a form? Work for me? Come in? Show up somewhere at a given time? Have an in person meeting? The more complicated the ask, the harder it is to get users through the door and through your process.
18. What is my conversion rate?
19. Where do people drop off in the flow through my website?
20. Who can do this? Can I or someone work on this every day? (Social media, for example, takes constant maintenance and vigilance vs. SEO take more upfront investment but less regular upkeep.
Not every tool is right for every product.
A lot of startups now need both end users and service providers. Think passengers and drivers for something like Lyft. These two groups need separate process and separate campaigns. I’ve found that services, B2B products, and investments larger than a few hundred dollars will probably need more than a snazzy website. Very few people will make a big investment by clicking around online. (I’ll address marketing and relationship building in another post.)
Second — Use cheap and easy ways to test your audience base and messaging
I suggest Facebook Ads as an easy way to test different audiences and messages. Each week, run a few campaigns and at the end of the week see what messaging and audiences were most effective. Then turn around and test again based on what you learned. Then use the information you learn about your product and people to inform more involved marketing initiatives.
If you are currently getting 2 qualified leads a week, you aren’t going to be able to get 100 qualified leads a week tomorrow. That’s a 50x increase. Plan for a more realistic exponential curve.
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