FIVE THINGS STARTUPS GET WRONG {A MARKETER’S PERSPECTIVE}smart city startups | @saneel | finch15.com

A BITABOUT ME

_Held agency roles in strategy, creative, media and innovation_Currently run an incubator-for-hire called Finch15_Think there’s a distinction between ‘growth hacking’ vs. ‘marketing’

I’M A FORMER MARKETER TURNED PRODUCT GUY

‘Just get up there and do a Saneel rant’

-Shaun Abrahamson CEO, Urban.us

Having slides doesn’t make this a presentation

MISTAKE ONEOPTIMIZATION

Over optimizing for your earliest customers makes your company smaller over the long-run.

PROBLEM

Quantify the future cost (in customers) of changes that improve today’s conversion rates.

SOLUTION

INSPIRATION

_Started as a camera strap for surfers… but never ‘pivoted’_Was about special moments from day one_Surf customers get one pitch, ski customers get another

MISTAKE TWOLOYALTY

Confusing loyalty, advocacy and referral underutilizes your existing customer base.

PROBLEM

Write three different customer emails asking them to:

1) buy something else 2) introduce new prospects 3) convert someone on fence

Identify what data point lets you match note & customer.

SOLUTION

INSPIRATION

_Loyalty: up-sold existing customers to Pebble Time via Kickstarter_Referral: generated $20 credit code upon preorder via Get Pebble_Advocacy: hijacked Apple Watch event with their fans via Twitter

LOYALTY & ADVOCACY

of Pebble Time pre-orders were existing Pebble owners

of “watch” tweets during the Apple event mentioned @pebble

50% 2%

Loyalty vs Advocacy

LOYALTY & ADVOCACY

of Pebble Time pre-orders were existing Pebble owners

of “watch” tweets during the Apple event mentioned @pebble

50% 2%

Loyalty vs Advocacy

MISTAKE THREEFRENEMIES

Letting investors convince you that partners are evil makes you ignore easy scaling options.

PROBLEM

Contact the company that has the most to lose if you’re successful.

SOLUTION

INSPIRATION

_Partnered with Samsung who is launching competitive headset_Smoothed some early-adopter-to-common-customer friction_Potentially helps create a mainstream market for a nerd product

MISTAKE FOURVALUE PROPS

Deciding you need a cool story when you really need a differentiated value proposition makes you much less competitive.

PROBLEM

Identify your category’s high ground.

Don’t know it?

Make a fake Kickstarter video. The second sentence is probably the high ground.

SOLUTION

INSPIRATION

_Realized all spirit ads are the same (‘we’ve made it, cheers!’)_Identified the category high ground as progress_Changed the direction he’s walking without you noticing

VALUE PROPS3 KEY PARTS

RelevanceValue Difference

VALUE PROPS3 KEY PARTS

RelevanceValue Difference

A really good value proposition aligns your point

of difference with the category’s high ground

MISTAKE FIVEPR

Turning to PR early gets you to climb up the tree when there’s likely still a lot of low-hanging fruit.

PROBLEM

Type your customer’s problem into Google

The first page of results is your media priority list

{Notice TechCrunch isn’t one of the results}

SOLUTION

INSPIRATION

_Press darling in an unproven market (without a PR agency)_Avoided the urge to talk ‘robots’ and ‘innovation’_Today Show & Fast Company coverage led to installs and usage

A PLUG GREATEST GOOD

Access to industry thought leaders, including world-famous marketers

WHAT

$150 charity donation for a 30-minute video chat

PRICE

MT Carney Michael Conrad Emma Cookson Kash Shaikh Rishad Tobaccowala

EXAMPLES

GROWTH HACKING IS GOODBut focusing on short-term growth at the expense of building a foundation can hurt your company long-term

CONFUSING LOYALTY VS ADVOCACY VS REFERRAL

FAILING TO HAVE FRENEMIES

NOT WRITING A VALUE PROPOSITION

OVERVALUING ‘PR’

OVER OPTIMIZING FOR EARLY USERS

STARTUP MARKETING MISTAKES

GROWTH HACKING IS GOOD{BUT MARKETING’S IMPORTANT TOO}CONFUSING LOYALTY VS ADVOCACY VS REFERRAL

FAILING TO HAVE FRENEMIES

NOT WRITING A VALUE PROPOSITION

OVERVALUING ‘PR’

{NOT USING GREATESTGOOD.ORG}

OVER OPTIMIZING FOR EARLY USERS

STARTUP MARKETING MISTAKES

SHOW ME YOURS{your scaling issues}

smart city startups | april 2015 | #scs415 @saneel

finch15.com greatestgood.org/saneel