Advanced Brand and Marketing for Early Stage Companies

Tomás PuigSr. Director, Labs at WP Engine@tnpuig

Paul DeryExecutive Creative Director at R/GA@pauliedery

#AdvBrand

The LandscapeHouse of MirrorsAction FrameworkYour TurnThe Pitch

The LandscapeHouse of MirrorsAction FrameworkYour TurnThe Pitch

This workshop was first given at SXSW 2015 as “Advanced Brand and Marketing for Early Stage Companies”.

The Example of SaaS was chosen as an economic model to explore with and these slides were the guide we used to explain the topics.

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What is SaaS?

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Two kinds of SaaS business:

MRRThose with primarily monthly contracts, with some longer term contracts. In this

business, the primary focus will be on MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

ARRThose with primarily annual contracts, with some contracts for multiple years. Here the

primary focus is on ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), and ACV (Annual Contract

Value).

this section via David Skok

There is two things a SaaS should focus on.

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First. Cash Flow.

Single Customer Cash Flow (Skok)

-7000

-6000

-5000

-4000

-3000

-2000

-1000

0

1000

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10 Month 11 Month 12

CAC (Cost to Acquire the Customer) Subscription Payments * GM% http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

Two Key Guidelines for SaaS Startups

LTV CAC

Months to recover CAC

>3x

12 Months<

@tnpuig @pauliedery #AdvBrandhttp://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

What does awesome look like?

http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

Activity:

Write down three SaaS companies you admire.

@tnpuig @pauliedery #AdvBrandhttp://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

Second. Users.

The quickest way to gain users is to have a product that disrupts the market.

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A disruptive innovation gives new consumers access to product historically only available to consumers with a lot of money or skill.

(Andreesen)

It's a fabricated myth that disruptive innovation is about destruction: It's about creation

(Andreesen)

Disruptive innovation shrinks inequality, by bringing to lower-income consumers things that only richer consumers had.

(Andreesen)

Rich people always had books, music, clean clothes. Disruptive innovation made these things available to many more people.

(Andreesen)

Printing press disrupted books from scribes; recorded music disrupted live concerts in homes, washing machines disrupted live-in maids.

(Andreesen)

A new product for a previously underserved market it is typically cheaper than existing product.

(Andreesen)http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/02/marc-andreessen-teaches-startups-what-disruption-is-really-about-in-17-tweets/

The LandscapeHouse of MirrorsAction FrameworkYour TurnThe Pitch

What does this mean for me?

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The Simplicity Filter

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What ONE problem does the product solve?

Does my product solve one problem

amazingly?YES MOVE

ON

NOPE

Who is the ONE person my product solves this for?

Does it solve the problem for a

specific niche?YES MOVE

ON

NOPE

What level of customer service does the product provide?

HIGH(Humans)

LOW(Automated)

Case Studies

CASE STUDIES

BirchBox

Delivers a box of beauty samples each month to your door for $10 - 30 a month.

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CASE STUDIES

Hubspot

Provides a cloud service for inbound marketing that acts as an all in one technical marketing tool for $200 –2500+ a month.

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Activity:

For the three companies you chose answer these three questions.

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The Experience Exchange

Marketing cannot make your product better.

What the brand says and what the brand does must be ONE.

Match culture to brand essence Does your product

deliver on what your marketing says it

does?

YES MOVE ON

NOPE

TARGET

Total Available Market

This is the most ignored analysis in early companies.

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What is TAM

Total Available Market

Or stated as:

The revenue opportunity available for a product or service.

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Niche in Business Terms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_addressable_market

Two ways to calculate:

Bottom Up: Manual Counting

Top Down: Secondary Market Research (analyst reports)

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Niche is a subset of TAM that are your base (or evangelists)

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How to activate your niche

STARTING WITH SOCIAL

Social is a great place to start.

A low entry barrier to build your brand.

Your singular focus comes through in social.

You mightn’t have a million followers, but your singular purpose comes through.

43

For years, we’ve one had one figurehead broadcasting to many people.

Today we have many.

46

47

48

A couple of rules to social

01Social is the sponsoring of a community.

02Nobody wants to be your friend, they already have their own.

03Talk to your followers like they are your friends. A good friend doesn’t try to sell you, they help you.

04No need to be always on, but do be always relevant.

SUCCESSFUL CONTENT IS ALL ABOUT CONTEXT.

Who will see it? When will they see it?Where does it live?

These are the questions that will help us reach the audiences we want with the messages we want them to see (and the messages they want to see from us).

Be content driven.

SEO – For a start up only five things mostly govern position.

1. Domain authority2. High quality of inbound links3. High quantity of inbound links4. High quality page content5. Site speed

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Instead of going into channels deeply here is some tips and tricks.

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Earned media often refers to “PR” or getting someone to write about you.

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Only two things cause narrative in the press: Controversy or Novelty

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Paid.

Instead of going deep lets just look at some tips.

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The more mature the paid channel the less likely you are to have cheap wins.

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Adwords

Protect your brand but you aren’t going to outbid the big boys.

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Social Paid

Useful but limited budgets should be saved for blowing up your earned media wins.

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YouTube Paid

Wonderful for marketing directly to niche’s on specific channels. But watch your budget.

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Affiliates…. Explore them. Can run 10-30% of revenue acquired. But remember they are motivated by payout. Think lead generation mercenaries for hire.

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Display

I wouldn’t touch display with an earlier stage company.

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A word on churn.

Churn is the loss of an ARR or MRR customer.

This is bad.

Customer Nurture:

Look after the customers you have. They’re easier and cheaper than acquiring new customers.

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The LandscapeHouse of MirrorsAction FrameworkYour TurnThe Pitch

Your Brief.

Now that we’ve the applied simplicity filter to the product.

Now that you’ve found your niche.

We need to communicate.

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The smaller you are the bigger the purpose you must have

THE BRIEF

CUSTOMER BRAND MESSAGE

What does the customer want?

What does the product deliver?

What do you want to say?

THE BRIEF – BIRCH BOX

CUSTOMER BRAND MESSAGE

It’s a big investment to try out different products.

A little sample every month based on your preference.

The smartest way to shop for beauty and grooming.

THE BRIEF – HUB SPOT

CUSTOMER BRAND MESSAGE

Inbound marketing is really $ and very technical for my SMB.

A suite of tools that cheaply lets you grow your SMB.

Let us handle the hard things so you can focus on what you do.

THE BRIEF – NETFLIX

CUSTOMER BRAND MESSAGE

NETFLIX

CUSTOMER BRAND MESSAGE

It’s Blockbuster or bust.

A huge library of unique titles delivered to your door.

Movies delivered to your door without a late fee.

THE MODERN MARKETING DEPARTMENT

SaaS Marketing in a start up primarily consists of three activities.

1. Acquisition2. Sales Enablement3. Customer Nurture

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Lets say you have four people.

THE MODERN MARKETING DEPARTMENT

Strategy Creative

Comms Data

KPIs and OKRsResearch

PositioningA/B Testing Plans

International

Copy (selling)Content (informing)Design (emotion)

Public RelationsCommunity Relations

Analyst RelationsSocial

Ad Campaign Planning

AnalyticsLead EvaluationConversions and ROIOrganic Search Rank ReportsEvaluating and Enacting A/B Tests

Each group will need to use both online and offline channels to perform their functions.

The LandscapeThe BriefThe ThoughtYour TurnThe Pitch Groups

You Pitch

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The LandscapeThe BriefThe ThoughtThe GoalThe Pitch

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The LandscapeThe BriefThe ThoughtAppendixThe Pitch

Digital EcosystemBranding and content must feel consistent across all channels that exist within the digital ecosystem

PAID SOCIAL

CONNECTIONS CONTENT DRIVEN

Ad NetworksPartner Programs

Sponsorship

FacebookTwitterGoogle+

Marketers“In the Wild”

Events

SEOBlogNewsletterPR

Site Activities

RESEARCHING WORKING PARTICIPATING CONNECTING

Audience Users lookingfor a solution

Existing Customers Community and Activity Owners

StakeholdersIndustry Participants/ Special Interest Groups

Relevant Content Service BenefitsFAQContactProduct MixOffersTestimonials

SupportLoginResourcesPlatform Status

BlogWhite PapersCase StudiesNewsSocial

About the CompanyCareersContactTeamNewsSocial

Strategy

It is broken up into seven key activities:

1) KPIs and OKRs2) Audience Research3) Channel Research4) Messaging and Positioning5) Strategic Planning6) A/B Testing Plans7) International territory management

Each group will need to use both online and offline channels to perform their functions.

CREATIVE

COPY (Selling)

1) Ads2) Landing Pages3) Brochures4) Product Descriptions

Content (Informing)

1) Blog Posts2) E-books3) Podcasts4) Infographics5) Webinars

Design (Emotion)

1) Brand Guidelines2) Amazing Company Swag3) Quality Control of All External Assets4) Build of Assets for Ad Network

Communications

It is broken up into eight key activities:

1) Public Relations2) Publicity3) Government Relations4) Community Relations5) Analyst Relations6) Social Influencer Relations7) Speaker Pitches8) Ad Campaign Planning

Data

It is broken up into nine key activities:

1) Analytics2) Lead Evaluation3) Media Hits and Readership Reporting4) Sales Numbers Following Ad Campaigns5) Conversions and ROI6) Follower Growth7) Negative SEO Checks8) Organic Search Rank Reports9) Evaluating and Enacting A/B Tests