user acquisition - zero budget ways to acquire new customers

User AcquisitionZero Budget Ways to Acquire New Customers

Agenda

PR

Inbound

Outbound

Hi, I’m Shira(@shiraabel)

I’ve been doing marketing in tech

companies for a long time

I’m a mentor at 500 Startups, & was a

Founding Mentor at Google Campus, and Microsoft Ventures

Accelerator

And I have an MBA from Kellogg School of

Management

LISTEN TO MY PODCAST

SAAS INSIDERhttps://hunterandbard.com/saas-insider/

I’m writing a book!Signup to be notified here:http://www.shiraabel.com/book

All About PR

Earned Media & PR• Brings big numbers all at once• Gives a spike of traffic• Must be strategic• May not be aimed at the target market (i.e. much of the time

TechCrunch isn’t the target market, but it’s what VCs read & gives social proof)

• Has a strong trust rate

@shiraabel

Purpose of PR

Why are you doing PR?

Why do we need PR?

12

Do you have a productto sell?

13

For your product to sell people need to know it

exists

14

PR builds awareness ina wide audience quickly

15

Why Do PR?

§Looking to raise money§Hiring§Creating awareness in the market§Downloads of your app / Sales§Signaling to competitors

What is Earned Media & PR

§ Blog posts that you write and submit for publishing (how-to’s are great for this)

§ Coverage from any media (radio interview, blog post, news article, etc)

§ Mentions from others that you didn’t pitch§ Evangelists who are well known (imagine

Oprah mentioning you to her minions)

Why Earned Media & PR

§Exposes you to big numbers all at once§Gives a spike of traffic§May be strategic instead of pure growth

(e.g. TechCrunch might not be the target market, but it’s what VCs read)

§Has a strong trust rate

PR strategy

What is your goal?

Performance Measurement• Is your objective SMART: specific, measurable, achievable,

realistic & time specific?• What are your strategic initiatives?

• Build awareness• Expand distribution (i.e. increase downloads)• Get more funding• Hire great people

• How will you measure (KPIs)? • Traffic• Sales• Applications• Interest from VCs

Your Goal Determines Strategy

If you want to raise money, pitching to

mommy bloggers won’t help. Unless one of

them just raised a fund.

How to do PR

Let’s get to the nitty gritty

Your List is Gold

Journalists Analysts Influencers

@shiraabel

How to Do Earned Media & PR• Get to know media & bloggers on Twitter long before launch• Give• 2 weeks before launch ask if they would be willing to check

out your product (consider an embargo)• Offer an exclusive • Contribute an article • I’ve heard of success from mass emails (luckiest woman I’ve

ever met – only case of success I know)• KEEP YOUR ASK SHORT

Sample Email

Tools You Need• Google Alerts:• Who is covering your competition?• Who owns your keywords?

• SimilarWeb• What are your keywords?• What is your competition focusing on

• Google Trends / Twitter Trends• Trendjacking

27

Content as PR

§Guest blogging §Webinars / Presentations with bigger

partners that give helpful industry related information

§Create an infographic for others to share§Guest contribute to a media publication

All About Inbound

Writing - What Do You Read?

• No one cares about your company• People are busy• They care about what they need for work or life• Don’t waste their time• Grammar and spelling mistakes lower trust by up to

50% - get another set of eyes to check your work

@shiraabel

Blogging• Make sure it’s interesting• Have a CTA at the bottom of the post leading

somewhere else• Don’t have it be about you (see the first bullet)• Blog regularly, so people come back• Give helpful information • Test whether 300 words or 1200 words are better for

your audience

@shiraabel

Thought Leadership is Critical

• Blogging and guest blogging is one of the best ways to do this• Webinars / Presentations that give helpful industry

related information (think Crunched and its Growth Hacker series)• White papers (sign up to our newsletter and get this

white paper for free!)

@shiraabel

“A true unfair advantageis something that cannotbe easily copied or bought.”- Jason Cohen

What’s Your Strategy

ExampleBusiness Objective

Improve Financial Performance

Business MetricReduce Long-Term

Dependence on Ads & Lower Overall Costs

Marketing MetricIncrease Relationship / Content Marketing –Raise percentage of traffic from blog versus

ads

Example

Watch the FunnelAcquisition – Learns About Product

Conversion – Signs Up OR Demo

Retention – Uses Product OR Buys

Buys OR Expands Account

WOM (Sharing)

@shiraabel

Your content depends on where the person is in the

funnel

• PR (Media Kit recommended)

• Facebook

• Podcast

• YouTube

• Twitter

• Quora

• LinkedIn

• Blogging

• Newsletter / Email (highest ROI of all digital media)

• Google+

• Forums

• White papers / Case studies• Peer review• Seeding posts• Infographics• E-book• Webinars• Community• Guest blogging • Teleseminar• Affiliate Marketing• Game elements (e.g. leader board, 80% signed up,

awards for actions)• SEO / SEM• Pinterest• Blog commenting

Sample Free Tactics (not in any order)

@shiraabel

Communicating to an International Market• Americans spell correctly. However, the British

disagree. There are more Americans than British J(localize your English – even when it’s for Australians)• Spelling and grammar count – mistakes lower trust

levels in all languages and cultures• Find someone from the culture you’re aiming to sell to,

who knows marketing – to do your marketing. OR – go there & live for a bit. Understanding culture is critical.

@shiraabel

All About Outbound

Drip Campaign• DO NOT BUY A LIST•Build a list• Goal: Engagement• Cadence:

• First 3 emails – blog post lists, infographics, non-gated content (just bring value)

• Next 3 emails – lightly gated content e.g. White paper, case study• Next 2 emails – call to demo• Last email – breakup (or just leave it open for awile)

• CALL THE PEOPLE WHO OPEN

@shiraabel

ABM• Like Outbound, but more focused• You need to know who the players are• Targeted emails – these make it obvious you’ve done

your homework on them• Do not send gated content (you should have their info

already)• Send something IRL (books are always good, then a

swag notebook – but first don’t make it about you)

@shiraabel

Calling• Do your research first• People don’t call anymore, so there’s a chance you’ll

actually catch someone• Call during work hours – not during their dinner

@shiraabel

Ads• Also outbound, but not free – so I’m just mentioning,

but not diving in

@shiraabel

Email Hunter

Find the email of the person you want to connect to by using the Email Hunter Chrome browser app

@shiraabel

RapportiveConfirm the email of the person you want to connect to by checking names through the Rapportiveplugin.

@shiraabel

MixMax in Gmail@shiraabel

MixMax helps you remember to send that follow up email, and has the easiest meeting scheduler I’ve ever seen.

Signals@shiraabel

Find out when the email you sent was opened by the recipient.

LinkedIn@shiraabel

Choose who you want to connect to:

What groups is the person in?

If you know the title but not the whole name – do a search in Google of the partial name and title & you’ll get the whole name.

Who Are You Looking For@shiraabel

Google Search@shiraabel

First & Last Name Found!@shiraabel

Marketing as a Sales Tool• Case studies show your ideal customer and how things

go when everything is perfect• Connecting with individuals on social builds the

relationship, e.g.• Object can showcase customers design work on its FB page• LinkedIn group about industry – lead generation• Social CRM on Twitter

• Email marketing reminds companies that you exist & what you can do for them

@shiraabel

Social Media for Research• What is the title of the person in the organization that

typically makes the decisions? • Rapportive• LinkedIn

• Who are the media people who cover your industry?• Twitter • FB• Quora• LinkedIn• Pinterest

@shiraabel

International Partnerships• You’re in Europe – use it to your advantage – partner

with other European & Israeli companies• Find companies in complimentary industries to do joint

partnerships with – e.g. A high end organic bed company does a joint promotion with a high end organic bedding (sheets) company – email lists are combined & both companies & customers benefit• Face to face is ideal, but Skype works wonders when

F2F is not possible

@shiraabel

Keep in Touch – Email• Keep it short• A/B test several subject lines• Action-trigger emails have a higher opening rate• Keep it relevant• Appropriate landing page à funnel them in• Let people choose what they want to be notified for• DON’T BUY LISTS OR SPAM

@shiraabel

Keep in Touch – Notifications• iOS 108 characters max• Android – recommended 50 characters max (1-line on

the notification bar) * ht/ Danya Schwartz Bar-El • Localize sending so user receives notification between

9-11am or 2-5pm (but test first)• A/B test messaging for a couple of days then blast

everybody else with the winner• In-app landing page – like all landing pages - fitted to

the message and the push campaign

@shiraabel

How You Say Things Matters

‘Researchers found that placing the following statement at the end of an ad… caused their trust scores to jump

as much as 33 percent!’“You can trust us to do the job for

you.”

@shiraabel

• Fear – Insurance• Guilt – Mother’s Day• Trust – Financial

institutions• Value – Matching prices• Belonging – Part of our

community

• Competition – Doing better than the Jones’s• Instant Gratification – I

want it now• Leadership – Early

adopter & evangelist • Trendsetting – What are

the leaders doing? • Time – Save time

Get Emotional

International Markets

§ Americans spell correctly. However, the British disagree. There are more Americans than British ☺ (localize your English – even when it’s for Australians)

§ Spelling and grammar count – mistakes lower trust levels in all languages and cultures

§ Find someone from the culture you’re aiming to sell to, who knows marketing – to do your marketing. OR – go there & live for a bit. Understanding culture is critical.

Connect!@shiraabelhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/shiraabelhttp://www.facebook.com/shiraabelhttps://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShiraAbel/postshttp://www.instagram.com/shiraabelhttp://www.pinterest.com/shira_abel

Your options according to Yoda

Do.

Do not.Try.

References & Reads• All of the stock photos are taken from http://thestocks.im/• THANK YOU’S: Heather Meeker from http://meekerquinn.com/• http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-users-fill-out-less-if-you-mark-required-fields/• http://dancounsell.com/articles/prompting-for-app-reviews• http://agevik.se/post/72876032312/20-lessons-about-making-viral-apps-i-learned-the-hard• http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/09/web-content-conversions/• http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/eric-ries-the-lean-startup-google-tech-talk• http://www.slideshare.net/gzicherm/nir-eyal-hookedatgsummit• http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas• http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/socialization-of-your-personal-brand_28/• http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2004/03/its_a_small_wor.html• http://www.quora.com/Udemy/How-did-Udemy-get-11-000-courses-online-so-quickly• http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A• http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Cristal-1-0mm-Black-MSLP16-Blk/dp/B004F9QBE6• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI• http://www.macadamia-apps.com/app-launch-7-mistakes-to-learn-from/• http://flowingdata.com/2011/09/18/yoda-pie-chart/• http://blog.bitly.com/post/9887686919/you-just-shared-a-link-how-long-will-people-pay• http://www.briansolis.com/2011/09/whats-the-r-o-i-a-framework-for-social-analytics/• http://www.slideshare.net/setlinger/altimeter-social-analytics081011final• Breakthrough Marketing Plans• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media• http://ideas.deloitte.ca/blog/2011/09/social-media-going-beyond-roi/• http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/20/the-10-key-mistakes-many-bloggers-and-writers-make/• http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/• http://www.facebook-studio.com/• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media• http://marketingfortomorrow.com/tag/marketing-tone/

@shiraabel

Thank you!