Marketing technical products is too important to leave to marketers…

HACKING

MARKETING

DEVS H

OLD

TH

E KE Y

Presentation by Scott Canny

RE-DEFINING THE “PRODUCT”

• The Internet has created a radical re-definition of the word “product”

• It is no longer a physical good

• It is the code that you put together to create software “products”

• “Products” can now market themselves as they are used

THE HOLY GRAIL – THE VIRAL LOOP• A product that generates it’s own traffic is

the Holy Grail

• Has a compounding effect and improves ROI everywhere

• Everyone who uses your product should share it

• If every customer brings at least 1 other you have a viral loop

• A viral coefficient > 1 achieves exponential growth

THE HOLY GRAIL IS NOT EASILY ATTAINED

• A viral coefficient > 1 is extremely hard to achieve

• Any viral coefficient > 0 will have a positive impact

• Increases the amount of customers a given campaign could have brought in and improves ROI

• Improves effectiveness of all marketing, saves money

• Work towards the holy grail and you will be better for it

CASE STUDY: AIRBNB HACK CRAIGSLIST• AirBnb achieved incredible growth in a short space of time

• Realised that most of their target market was using Craigslist

• Created a piece of code so that any AirBnb listing could be automatically posted to Craiglist

• Craigslist did not have a public API so AirBnb reverse engineered the process

• Created tons of inbound links and traffic

• Seems obvious now – doesn’t it?

THE PERFECT EXAMPLE…

• Did something traditional marketers would have a hard time envisioning

• Used their product as the primary means of distributing their product

• Saw where there customers were congregating and hijacked them

• Creative and ingenious

• Heavily technology based

• Pushed the bounds of what is acceptable

SO HOW CAN WE DO IT?

• Network Invitations• Take it to the next level (e.g. Dropbox)• Cater to your audience• Low cost to you – high value to customer

• Social Sharing

• API Integrations

• Backlinking• e.g. AirBnB & Hotmail

• Organic – make great products

• Plenty of different ways• User profile & business goals *NB

DEVS HOLD THE KEY!

• Break down the barriers between Devs & Marketing

• Be eager to learn and go outside your job description

• You know the product better than anyone else!

• Think about the customer experience and create a product that is easy to use and share

• Share your knowledge

• Not only Devs & Marketing but EVERYONE!