Creative Marketing for Internet Companies 2012

Overview

ü  Buying users is becoming too costly and the overall quality of traffic is decreasing •  We must reduce our dependence on pure purchasing of users

from Google and Facebook •  It is critical that we provide better interactions and experiences,

facilitating increased conversion rates while users are interacting with our sites, apps, or teams

•  Overall, this will improve long-term quality of members ü  In order to prepare this deck, research was conducted from various

sources, including friends and portfolio companies of Lakestar

2 © Lakestar 2012

Contact Manu Gupta manu@lakestar.com

Potential Levers

1.  Game Layer 2.  SEO & Related Technologies 3.  Visual Impacts 4.  Trust Components

5.  Content Is King 6.  Social & Mobile Interactions 7.  Public Relations & Partners 8.  Testing 9.  Providers List

3 © Lakestar 2012

1. Game layer

ü  Provide Achievements / Create Levels •  Badges, rewards, rankings based on user actions (ie.

Foursquare) •  Users take actions to avoid decrease in rankings •  Loyalty programs (ie. Punchd)

ü  Time / Quantity Based Techniques •  Expiring deals and countdown clocks, limited quantities •  Creation of optimistic urgency (ie. Groupon, Vente-Privee)

ü  Build Momentum With Super Users •  When users become more active, the system becomes more

active with the user •  Release data / gifts in small parts to keep people active

4 © Lakestar 2012

1. Game layer

ü  Define Social Goals •  User goals are made known to the entire group and community

members support achievement (ie. HeiaHeia.com) •  Competition among users (ie. WordsWithFriends) •  Create leader boards / rankings and thereby building envy

ü  Emotional Benefits •  Leverage emotive tokens to illicit desired response •  Build sense of exclusivity (ie. restricted areas available upon

achievement) •  Make users feel part of the family (ie. Stella & Dot) •  Leverage graphic imagery or create a vivid story around the site

(ie. Kony 2012)

5 © Lakestar 2012

1. Game layer

ü  Free vouchers / lotteries •  Use free vouchers or gifts to attract users (use targeting

technologies to reduce churn of these users) •  Viral compensation (but ensure that both sides are compensated) •  Create a lottery to win something online (ie. buyers in X month

entered into lottery) ü  Create ownership

•  Provide users sense of owning something online (ie. users create own style online, own shop within shop, own collections)

ü  Guide the user on a step-by-step path •  Create an action plan for the user with a clear path to

performance (ie. cover the night campaign)

6 © Lakestar 2012

2. SEO & Related Technologies

ü  SEO considered by many the most important factor in online marketing •  Leverage SEO experts for all strategies in backlinking, link

exchanges, tagging, etc. •  Lakestar can provide references to SEO experts upon request •  Performance increases typically high (ie. query conversion rates

can be up to 5x higher from second page to first page of Google) ü  Use retargeting technologies (ie. Criteo) ü  Leverage Affiliates (ie. Commission Junction, Zanox)

7 © Lakestar 2012

3. Visual Impacts

ü  User interfaces are critical •  Unique is always better (ie. Apple.com, Fab.com, discovercircle,

gogobot.com) •  Add large visual graphics throughout site •  Build user convenience factors (ie. mipso.me) •  Save preferences, likes, habits, and reduce user clicks

ü  Continuous use of video •  Create fun opening video on how company works (sailogy.com) •  For every category sold, create an introduction video (ie.

joyus.com) •  For every product, show a video of usage (ie. Asos, Net-a-

Porter.com) •  Use humor (ie. dollarshaveclub.com)

8 © Lakestar 2012

4. Trust Components

ü  Use trust badges, symbols, etc. that provide users immediate comfort throughout the site •  Professionalism and “slick” site user interface give impression of

quality •  “As seen on” logos for respected news publications •  Letter from CEO / management team •  Very detailed “About Us” page that shows strong backers,

advisors (confidence company will be around long term) •  Add insurance components (ie. AirBnB) and provide guarantees •  Add user testimonials and real experience case studies

9 © Lakestar 2012

5. Content is King

ü  Attempt to build longer engagement with users via content •  Creation of a blog / topics surrounding the site (ie. Net-a-

Porter.com) •  Creation a story around each item sold or provide high amount of

detail •  Provide a detailed history of the company or show a video on

how the products are made

10 © Lakestar 2012

6. Social & Mobile Interactions

ü  Leverage Facebook •  Create shopping tab within Facebook (note: FB conversion rates

remain low for most companies polled) •  Allow users to “like” individual content •  Allow users to connect with friends or see which friends “liked”

which products •  Pay at checkout for inclusion into Facebook feed

ü  Create Pinterest / Twitter Feeds ü  Mobile / iPad Apps

•  Research shows that earlier the better, even if only for building familiarity / brand awareness

11 © Lakestar 2012

7. Public Relations & Partners

ü  Get into the blog hype spiral •  Make friends early at Techcrunch, Uncrunched, DailyPando,

Business Insider, GigaOm

ü  Write / Blog •  Create new, original thought pieces and submit to various blogs /

twitter feeds / news publications ü  Let Partners market for you

•  Leverage multi-layer marketing techniques (ie. Stella & Dot) that allow users to make money themselves

•  Seek out-of-the-box B2B relationships that can help build scale (Amex, resellers, etc.)

12 © Lakestar 2012

7. Public Relations & Partners

ü  Out-of-the-Box Public Relations •  Provide facilities tours •  Offer CEO Dinners for special power users / influencers •  Walk and Drive marketing (ie. decals on management team

automobiles)

13 © Lakestar 2012

8. Testing

ü  Survey •  Surveymonkey links at the bottom of pages / emails / after

purchases •  Rapid fire questions – ask only one question, but filter these type

of questions throughout the site or based on user actions

14 © Lakestar 2012

9. Providers List

ü  A full list of useful providers is available upon request

15 © Lakestar 2012